The intelligence news that Russia may be requesting military and financial assistance from China is, I think, one of the more shocking incidents to occur in this invasion of Ukraine by Russia. For most folks on both ends of the political spectrum Russia is, or now past tense, was the Bear, grumpy and vicious and apt to eat the unwary.
Their failure to topple Ukraine in 3 days – it’s now close to 3 weeks – is signal evidence of failures in the military’s planning, logistics, resources, professionalism, top to bottom.
That they – read Putin – have to ask China for help, even if it’s only symbolic in the arena of military assistance, since such usually takes training, or, a chancy business, China sending military personnel, is a measure of their desperation. Why?
Because China’s Russia’s own bugaboo. China, the world’s most populous nation, has a huge Army, nuclear weapons, few scruples, and big ambitions. Now Russia, through the foolishness of Putin, has revealed a critical weakness.
And everyone is well aware that Russia is replete with natural resources – including China. This makes them desirable, not only as a trade partner, but as a subject territory.
I wonder if this has ever crossed Putin’s mind.
Will this happen? I don’t know. I’m not a military strategist, nor a specialist in China military, or indeed anything applicable. But I know China’s leader Xi is ambitious, he has a populace that must be kept distracted from its own many problems, and Russia is the prime example of a major power going downhill. It’s like a three legged sheep sighted by the wolf pack. Is the shepherd around, or is that sheep about to become dinner.
Russia’s internal powers had better start thinking about these possibilities, because right now Ukraine’s becoming a distraction and not a goal.
