Dictators, Summits, and War Crimes
Just days after the International Criminal Court issued a war crimes indictment for Vladimir Putin, making him the world’s most famous and most wanted fugitive, Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to Moscow for a state visit, his 40th meeting with the Kremlin leader.
And while Xi’s visit eased Putin’s international isolation and bolstered Sino-Russian efforts to forge an anti-Western international coalition, it appeared to fall short of providing Putin what he most desires: Chinese pledges of military assistance in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Because while Xi did offer Putin moral and economic support in the form of increased trade, he offered no offensive weapons — at least not yet.
So where is the Sino-Russian partnership going? And what does it — and Putin’s indictment for war crimes — mean for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine?
On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former U.S. State Department official Max Bergmann, director of the Europe and Russia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Jeff Mankoff, a Distinguished Research Fellow at National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies and author of the recently published book Empires of Eurasia: How Imperial Legacies Shape International Security. Enjoy…
SHOW NOTES
The CSIS report on Sino-Russian military cooperation that was referenced in the podcast can be accessed here. Max Bergman’s other work at CSIS can be accessed here.
Jeffrey Mankoff’s book, Empires of Eurasia, can be purchased here. Jeffrey Mankoff’s other work can be accessed here.
The Atlantic Council’s post on its experts’ reactions to the Xi-Putin summit can be accessed here.