PUTIN CALLS FOR A MULTIPOLAR POLITICO-ECONOMIC ORDER

[Wunder-Zeichen]

A Stronger Yuan In Russia

Quartz Daily Brief: The yuan's role as Russia’s foreign currency of choice strengthened.
In talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian president Vladimir Putin called for a multipolar economic order.

PUTIN IS STRENGTHENING THE YUAN'S ROLE
AS RUSSIA'S FOREIGN CURRENCY OF CHOICE

For his nation’s businesses in the global market, Russian president Vladimir Putin endorsed the yuan as the currency of choice on the second day of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow. The two world leaders signed 14 economic agreements on March 21, covering everything from scientific cooperation to joint production of television programs, as they look to counterbalance the US dollar’s worldwide dominance. In a joint statement announcing the agreements, China and Russia said their alliance was not “confrontational in nature and...not directed against third countries.” The leaders also called for an “acceleration of the process of establishing a multipolar world order.” Putin specifically mentioned the Chinese currency in the context of Russian investments in the developing world. “We are in favor of using the Chinese yuan for settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America,” Putin said. “I am confident that these forms of settlement in yuan will develop between Russian partners and their counterparts in third countries.” China has been an economic lifeline for Russia during international sanctions stemming from its invasion of Ukraine, with Beijing agreeing to buy oil and gas exports from the isolated country, though at a discounted rate. Xi’s attempts to enshrine the yuan as a worldwide currency are part of the Chinese government’s aim to become more involved in global economic and political affairs. Last week, Xi negotiated a peace treaty between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the goal of helping end a proxy war in Yemen. In related news, Saudi Arabia is considering selling oil to China for yuan instead of dollars.

[Hexachordia]

But India refused to deal in yuan and had also sided with the west in limiting russian oil prices. Pegging onto RMB is welcomed by me personally, even India is out of the bloc, China will stand with Russia to the end of this war agains the odds.

[Wunder-Zeichen]

Xi and Putin Flaunt Deepening Ties, Flout the U.S.-led Order

United States Institute of Peace Analysis and Commentary: The two autocrats strengthened economic cooperation and stressed the strategic logic of their alignment, singling out the U.S. as their chief adversary. Thirteen months after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Beijing are continuing to deepen their ties even as China has sought to portray itself as a neutral player in the war. This week’s summit between Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin comes on the heels of the International Criminal Court’s warrant for Putin for war crimes. For Putin, the summit demonstrated that despite Western sanction and opprobrium, Russia is not an isolated pariah state. Meanwhile, Xi used the summit to further the image he has tried to burnish of Beijing as a peacemaker and advance his vision of an alternative multilateral order, breaking away from the U.S.-led system.

[gixajo]

A call not for a multipolar world, but a covert call for a change of hegemony. The iron law of the oligarchy also works for hegemonic blocks in dispute.

Who can believe such a thing? How is China going to promote in the world something different from what it executes within its borders? is this a desperate appeal for support from Russia?

That third block can only exist as a farce to create the illusion of being able to escape from one of the two sides that really influence.

The world will probably be divided into two spheres of influence, prior to a "one world government".

Could the "West" and China have agreed to end Russia as the third global player?

One acting as "good cop" and the other as "bad cop"?

[Wunder-Zeichen]

Russia: 60-day extension of wartime grain deal acceptable

Russia signaled support for a grain deal extension—but only for 60 more days.
The UN-brokered deal, made last July between Russia and Ukraine, has helped lower global food prices.

Ukraine charged that the Russian proposal to extend it only for 60 days goes against the deal, although the language of the agreement allows the parties to roll it over or “modify” it — as Russia did Monday. The noncommittal U.N. response betrayed the world body’s inability to force hands. Russia can largely do what it wants to abide by or reject the deal, leaving the issue dangling for countries in the developing world, which benefit most.

[VIK LEWA]

Strategic Partners: Russian-Chinese Relations in the Post-Soviet Era

By Jeanne Wilson · 2015

Russia's foreign policy experience in the first post-Soviet decade was marked by disappointments as well as surprising turns. Expectations that Russia would join the Western powers as an equal partner were frustrated, while relations with the People's Republic of China warmed considerably. Today, Russia's relationship with China is an important component of its overall foreign policy orientation, as the two states - one greatly diminished, the other clearly on the rise - have found themselves sharing an interest in curbing the power of the United States. In analyzing Russia's evolving foreign policy vis-a-vis China, the author takes into account the legacy of Soviet-era precedents; the simultaneous processes of economic policy change and integration into global economic structures; and military relations. By shedding light on the role of political realism, decision makers, and exogenous factors in Russian foreign policy, this analysis of an important bilateral relationship contributes to the larger project of understanding international relations and the dynamics of domestic and foreign policy change.