China’s Xi arrives in Russia ahead of Putin’s Victory Day parade

While close ties to Moscow have afforded China access to cheap Russian energy and weapons, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has complicated Beijing’s push to increase trade with Western nations, analysts argued. But for Moscow and Beijing, the “war-induced investment in their decades-long relationship has paid off massively,” one analyst argued, with further benefits possible as Donald Trump’s disruptive trade policies push more countries to reconsider China as an alternative to Washington. Even so, Beijing’s closeness to Moscow is now complicating China’s outreach to Europe in response to Washington’s trade war: “By visibly aligning with Putin, … Beijing reinforces suspicions that it is willing to side with revisionist powers,” unnerving Europe and parts of Asia, a China expert argued.

Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow underscored the challenges inherent in the Trump administration’s apparent aim of stopping Russia and China from becoming closer, with Xi on Wednesday writing in Russian media that both countries “must foil all schemes to disrupt or undermine our bonds.” Washington officials have repeatedly indicated they want to achieve what analysts have called a “reverse Nixon,” a reference to that president’s forging diplomatic ties with Beijing to isolate the then Soviet Union. Experts point to China and Russia’s history of conflict, Moscow’s concerns over China’s influence in Russia’s East, and Beijing’s wariness about Moscow’s militarism as real limits to their partnership. In China, doubts persist about how close it wants to be with Russia, a historian of Russian-Chinese relations argued.

Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, conceived to commemorate the Soviet Union’s fight against the Nazis in World War II, have evolved into an opportunity for Vladimir Putin to foster nationalism and — more recently — honor Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The holiday is the “main marketing tool employed to legitimize Russia’s current political regime,” a Russian analyst said, creating ties between Putin and a glorious military victory. The slogan “we can do it again” has grown increasingly popular, The Guardian reported, and the Kremlin has long argued, without evidence, that Russia’s fight in Ukraine is aimed at the “denazification” of the country. This “selective reading of Russian history” is a key part of what drove Putin to invade Russia’s neighbor, a leading WWII historian argued.