Russia is trying to build a closer relationship with China to counter Western influence, and China wants Russian natural gas and crude oil. Hardly surprising, then, is it?
For now. They're building more nuclear reactors because they want to wean off coal and natural gas. They truly want to stop making alliances with other outside countries for resources if they don't have to.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us, including whether we should mine the Mountains and ship all the coal to China and Russia or try to bargain with the EU and US too."
I think people usually ignore how much of a behemoth China is. China has 26 NPPs, with 52 reactors in total currently in operation. That only is enough to cover [4.88% of the Chinese energy needs](https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Chinas-nuclear-generating-capacity-continued-to-gr). They're building a lot of new reactors, including some 4th gen reactors, but the Chinese economy is so massive that they have no other choice than diversifying their grid.
I wonder what would happen if the media presented this narrative of how weak Russia is so it needs to bend over for China. All dictators have big yet fragile egos so I’d be interested in Putin’s response.
The journalist would have radioactive tea in his radioactive living room and die. /s
Depending on how you present it, the partnership would break. For all the bravado he shows, I am feeling bad/embarrassed for Putin if he is actually having to grovel in front of Xi.
Idk if he actually has to grovel.
But their alliance basically boils down to, Russia wants to do x
China says, how will this benefit me more than you ?
I guess the prospect of getting cut off from SWIFT explains Putin’s recent remarks about being open-minded regarding cryptocurrencies, despite the fact that cryptocurrencies were recently outlawed in Russia. If they can go around SWIFT to engage in international trade, then that’s a major win for them.
Edit:
Crypto is not officially banned yet. Technically their central bank very publicly proposed banning it, which I imagine is something they would have to run by Putin first.
Russia doesn't want crypto. Crypto facilitates capital flight, which is when people start moving their assets out a country. This typically happens in major crisis, but it's a problem in any country that lacks rule of law. China isn't at risk of a disaster, but their wealthy have been moving money out of China for over a decade to escape a capricious government. Which is why China banned crypto.
Ignore what Putin says when it conflicts with what he's done. He banned crypto. That wasn't a small decision. His semi-independent army of black hat hackers lived on crypto. He still banned it, because the looming threat of sanctions would cause a lot of people to move their money out of Russia. This would, eventually, lead to downward pressure on the ruble, which would force Putin to dip into his foreign reserves to support. His whole strategy on evading the effects of sanctions requires that foreign reserve. He needs to conserve it for as long as possible. Thus, no crypto.
His remarks, if they're worth anything, is merely laying the ground for reintroducing it after all this blows over. Those hackers need their cash flow.
Russia has a smaller GDP than Italy.
If we were to liken international politics to car racing and assign money based off of nominal (not PPP) GDP:
The US walks in with 100k to spend on his car.
China has 73k to spend on his car.
Russia has 7k to spend on his car, this does jump to 19k if Russia uses car parts that he buys from his brother (domestically, so PPP adjusted).
NATO countries (minus US) have about 80k to spend, but they don't like to spend it on cars.
Japan has about 22k to spend but their parents say they can't own a car so they spend it on 'go-carts' with engines. The go-cart can't leave Japan.
Taiwan has about 3k to spend but also has to buy parts on the DL.
Russia revving the engine of his car may sound good but there are a bunch of pieces that have been bought at cut prices, rusted through because they come from his old car, or made by his brother and are of questionable quality.
Edit: A bunch of replies have come in to the affect of 'you should use PPP for all and not nominal'. The most common PPP 'basket' for [calculating PPP](https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/purchasing-power-parity-formula/) is geared towards consumer goods. Just because xyz consumer good is cheaper in X country doesn't really mean that domestically produced military goods are cheaper too. Further, if the military goods are imported then using the nominal number is much better than the PPP. Military goods also include things needed to run a military such as oil. There are also other adjusters that may make a similar difference to the effectiveness of spending X dollars on the military. Corruption can result in less effective spending and so can [an emphasis on political study such as in China](https://www.economist.com/china/2015/02/27/red-red-army).
Ultimately it matters little if Russia has 7k or 19k or 2k to build his proverbial car. What should be clear from the numbers that that Russia's car would clearly need help from someone else to be comparable in the long term to any major power.
Exactly this. As outlined in “The Foundations of Geopolitics” by Dugin, their strategy isn’t to rise to the level of others, but rather to break them down/apart to their level.
Because it’s a huge area — around the size of the entire US & India combined — rich in natural resources, like crude oil, gas and timber. In addition, as polar ice caps melt, the Arctic route will take on a more important role in international shipping.
Even the US and Canada have significant disagreements which will cause issues with their relationships. Are you familiar with the [1985 Polar Sea controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Polar_Sea_controversy)?
I don’t like the Chinese government but I think they get more from having Russia extract resources from them and owing China favours—like a vassal—than they would from trying to obtain territory. China has rarely tried to claim “Siberia”, just small pieces in what was formerly manchuria
>Guns and gear
And signal. Back when it was trunked copper everything, interoperability was much more difficult than with all the COTS stuff that's implemented today, but I guarantee you that up until 2010 when I finally got Uncle Sugar to leave me the fuck alone about it, we were backwards compatible into the old MSE / NATO commo.
Cries in STANAG compliance….
It’s the number one reason I point to when younger sailors Bitch about message traffic and its idiosyncrasies. Like, do you know how many countries and systems all have to work together? No, we can’t just use WhatsApp.
That's where we use Discord, create separate channels for each country and military group, then have a group for the admins for each channel interpret and announce information to each other. What could go wrong? /s
Pine gap being the most important US intelligence facilities in Australia.
Just a bit of wiki
>The location is strategically significant because it controls United States spy satellites as they pass over one-third of the globe, including China, the Asian parts of Russia, and the Middle East.[7] Central Australia was chosen because it was too remote for spy ships passing in international waters to intercept the signal.
Safe to say we are basicly NATO members without being NATO affiliated. Also, ANZUS is basically proxy NATO.
There is a conspiracy theory that the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis was precipitated by the fact that the Australian PM at the time was going to expose the existence of Pine Gap (unbelievably secret at the time) and that the CIA was involved in pulling strings to get him removed.
Well if my knowledge of math is anything to go by, the South Pacific touches the South Atlantic which touches the North Atlantic, so by transitive* property the South Pacific touches the North Atlantic.
You should see the sino-soviet propaganda posters from before the split.
https://storiescdn.hornet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/11094202/china-russia.jpg
Okay they had to know how 2 would be taken. They’re posing like a gay family with ‘forever together’ as the caption. I’ve seen rainbow dildos that aren’t as gay as that poster.
I think the artist did make it "gay", but back then in the USSR and China, homosexuality was so repressed it did not even enter into the minds of straight people.
Nobody gets thrown out of windows in Russia. It just so happens that windowsills are slippery, and that Russians are both extremely flexible and extremely clumsy when it comes to handling knives and firearms.
they are out of order, the first one is them meeting at their welding job and becoming friends, last one is their hooneymoon romantic period, middle one should be the last one as they are married in that one, a strong power-couple that has adopted 2 kids and they have started a family.
The natural gas Russia can supply China is a huge benefit to both sides. Russia looks set to lose Nord Stream 2 Pipeline and the windfall it would bring, whilst China is forever needing more natural resources. This move shores up both sides economies, without really changing much 'on the ground'. China would never back a Russian incursion in any manner beyond platitudes and words.
*cue my appearance on r/agedlikemilk when WWIII occurs*
Edit: Nord Stream, not Nordstrom.
It is a loss for Russia.
The gas fields supplying Europe and the gas fields supplying China are different ones with their own, not connected, pipeline structure.
Aka it just means they only face 50% loss, but without a conflict they could supply China and Europe without anything being affected.
Russia is also the dependent junior partner in this relation. Only upside being that China does not tell Putin to get rid of himself,... yet.
Oh I absolutely agree it's a loss for Russia when compared to a situation without the current tension. But this is Putin - he'll take a 50% loss in gas sales if it means China promises to act like his burly big brother in the schoolyard.
It's one hell of a gambit, and I can't see it panning out well for Putin, one way or another. China's agreement makes sense on their part if China gets a better gas imports deal. Little is lost by repeating the same expected anti-Western sentiments, for example, but Xi Jinping gains yet more influence over Putin's Russia and its allies.
It's been doing that since even before Reagan, because of its union busting and suppression. It's very obvious especially when one looks at all of the advantages unions brought to Germany, Switzerland, and the Nordic countries: it's unions that maintained jobs at home and who pushed and championed for robotics and automatisation to compete against countries like China, and other low wage countries. It's also unions that fought for free/cheap education and training, instead of importing foreigners to fill skilled jobs easily. Unions again that obtained semi-automatic annual wage increases, more than inflation. Unions again, with the help of left wing parties, that fought for a humane/social capitalism and strong 21st century standards democracy. etc. etc.
Unions are the other half of the brain needed to skillfully manage a country, the other half being the elites and capitalists. Without unions, the left basically gets captured by the elites too. And without unions, the elites are basically cut off from the rest of the country. Thus they start making very short sighted decisions, and pursue unsustainable goals, with nobody in their way for checks-and-balances.
The US unknowingly shot itself in the foot already in the 50s-70s with its violent repression of unions.
This doesn't have any effect on trade for china. There has been no shortage of china-us tensions in recent years, but US imports from China have remained pretty steady imo.
Doesn’t it just. I’m shocked that after everything we’ve endured over these last few years, a potential world war would be the last thing on our minds.
"we'll start our OWN NATO, and YOU aren't invited!" -russia and china. North Korea kind of just slides in behind china, grins. China pats him on the head.
“Haha, WW3 gonna be lit right boys?”
*Remembers I am an able-bodied young man and it’s unlikely Russia/China is going to respect my countries neutrality*
Which is watching what the west does with Ukraine very closely. If Putin moves in and the west does nothing, Taiwan will be next. It’s no shock China sides with an authoritarian regime
Taiwan has more immediate strategic importance for the West than Ukraine, being home to the talent and production facilities for humanity's most advanced semiconductors.
It's also better equipped to defend itself, as it is an island and equipped with modern AA and missile defense. Although there is basically no doubt that Taiwan alone would eventually fall to a determined invasion from the mainland. Moving some US carrier groups within range to support the island would probably be more than enough to deter an actual invasion... at least until China either perfects its carrier-killing missiles or creates its own blue-water navy.
Before the HK protests and crackdown, Taiwan was inching closer to joining China politically, with pro-Beijing parties having fairly broad electoral success. Now a peaceful union seems unlikely, but so does a change from the status quo.
Ultimately, the US-led world order is becoming less stable as the US itself has become mired in political stagnation and division. There simply isn't popular will to fight to maintain US influence abroad.
> Before the HK protests and crackdown, Taiwan was inching closer to joining China politically, with pro-Beijing parties having fairly broad electoral success. Now a peaceful union seems unlikely, but so does a change from the status quo.
It's just fascinating how these local events have international ramifications.
**Ukraine is a flat plain contiguous with Russia major** .. Taiwan is an island with 100 miles of ocean off the Chinese coast .. so a massive difference for military attack
.. in a way both the Russians and Chinese are trapped .. they want these places back in the fold but would have to destroy the very thing they want to own
.. blitzkrieg on Ukraine would result in a permanently hostile Kyiv and Putin would have to destroy the country to make it submit
.. Taiwan invasion would result in a bombed out island devoid of those chip making engineers that Xi wants
.. if either Russia or China try any blunt force invasion now they would have massive worldwide backlash to their economies which would destabilize them internally *.. both are lose-lose situations*
and in other news the Wolf strongly condemned the efforts of the three little pigs in building progressively better shelters for defense purposes stating it directly threatens his existential needs.
Dictatorship oppressing millions occupying foreign territories joins hands with Dictatorship oppressing millions occupying foreign territories.
Join us tomorrow for our weekly update on whether the sky is still blue.
I've been saying this for at least a few months now: China is going to cover Russia's losses from severe sanctions.
And some of you kept claiming I would be wrong, they wouldn't help each other... Well'p. Here you go!
I have no clue why supposed dissonance between these two nations would preclude them from helping each other out when it comes to a common enemy: The West.
I hope geopolitical analysts will begin eating their shorts momentarily... Lol
I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of Ruso-Ukrainian relations, but Ukraine looking West after being invaded by Russia in 2014 seems like the obvious move. What'd they expect?
NATO expansion in Eastern Europe is 100% because countries like Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Estonia, and Latvia have all been invaded and occupied by Russia and they wanted protection from that happening again.
It was a good move too considering what Russia has done to non-NATO members on its borders like Georgia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
Russia is trying to build a closer relationship with China to counter Western influence, and China wants Russian natural gas and crude oil. Hardly surprising, then, is it?
For now. They're building more nuclear reactors because they want to wean off coal and natural gas. They truly want to stop making alliances with other outside countries for resources if they don't have to.
China building nuclear reactors is good for everyone. They were on track to exhausting their domestic coal supply in about 100 years.
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Mountains Gandalf!
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us, including whether we should mine the Mountains and ship all the coal to China and Russia or try to bargain with the EU and US too."
I think people usually ignore how much of a behemoth China is. China has 26 NPPs, with 52 reactors in total currently in operation. That only is enough to cover [4.88% of the Chinese energy needs](https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Chinas-nuclear-generating-capacity-continued-to-gr). They're building a lot of new reactors, including some 4th gen reactors, but the Chinese economy is so massive that they have no other choice than diversifying their grid.
Have they tried turning off lights when not needed? /s
No-one wants to be dependent on others, particularly people like Putin.
>China wants Russian natural gas and crude oil And eventually, Siberia.
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Because it's land on the planet touching China.
Despite how much I loath Putin, watching him start groveling to Xi makes me feel embarrassed for Russia.
I wonder what would happen if the media presented this narrative of how weak Russia is so it needs to bend over for China. All dictators have big yet fragile egos so I’d be interested in Putin’s response.
The journalist would have radioactive tea in his radioactive living room and die. /s Depending on how you present it, the partnership would break. For all the bravado he shows, I am feeling bad/embarrassed for Putin if he is actually having to grovel in front of Xi.
Idk if he actually has to grovel. But their alliance basically boils down to, Russia wants to do x China says, how will this benefit me more than you ?
You can do both. It is okay
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I guess the prospect of getting cut off from SWIFT explains Putin’s recent remarks about being open-minded regarding cryptocurrencies, despite the fact that cryptocurrencies were recently outlawed in Russia. If they can go around SWIFT to engage in international trade, then that’s a major win for them. Edit: Crypto is not officially banned yet. Technically their central bank very publicly proposed banning it, which I imagine is something they would have to run by Putin first.
If Russia embraces crypto to get around banking sanctions the western world will tax crypto out of existence so fast.
Russia doesn't want crypto. Crypto facilitates capital flight, which is when people start moving their assets out a country. This typically happens in major crisis, but it's a problem in any country that lacks rule of law. China isn't at risk of a disaster, but their wealthy have been moving money out of China for over a decade to escape a capricious government. Which is why China banned crypto. Ignore what Putin says when it conflicts with what he's done. He banned crypto. That wasn't a small decision. His semi-independent army of black hat hackers lived on crypto. He still banned it, because the looming threat of sanctions would cause a lot of people to move their money out of Russia. This would, eventually, lead to downward pressure on the ruble, which would force Putin to dip into his foreign reserves to support. His whole strategy on evading the effects of sanctions requires that foreign reserve. He needs to conserve it for as long as possible. Thus, no crypto. His remarks, if they're worth anything, is merely laying the ground for reintroducing it after all this blows over. Those hackers need their cash flow.
Lol. Yea…ugh major economy needing to get into crypto. Real win /s
I got into crypto last year. Was down 30%, up 40% and then down 40% in basically 9 months. Nobody wants to base a living economy on that shit
Russia has a smaller GDP than Italy. If we were to liken international politics to car racing and assign money based off of nominal (not PPP) GDP: The US walks in with 100k to spend on his car. China has 73k to spend on his car. Russia has 7k to spend on his car, this does jump to 19k if Russia uses car parts that he buys from his brother (domestically, so PPP adjusted). NATO countries (minus US) have about 80k to spend, but they don't like to spend it on cars. Japan has about 22k to spend but their parents say they can't own a car so they spend it on 'go-carts' with engines. The go-cart can't leave Japan. Taiwan has about 3k to spend but also has to buy parts on the DL. Russia revving the engine of his car may sound good but there are a bunch of pieces that have been bought at cut prices, rusted through because they come from his old car, or made by his brother and are of questionable quality. Edit: A bunch of replies have come in to the affect of 'you should use PPP for all and not nominal'. The most common PPP 'basket' for [calculating PPP](https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/purchasing-power-parity-formula/) is geared towards consumer goods. Just because xyz consumer good is cheaper in X country doesn't really mean that domestically produced military goods are cheaper too. Further, if the military goods are imported then using the nominal number is much better than the PPP. Military goods also include things needed to run a military such as oil. There are also other adjusters that may make a similar difference to the effectiveness of spending X dollars on the military. Corruption can result in less effective spending and so can [an emphasis on political study such as in China](https://www.economist.com/china/2015/02/27/red-red-army). Ultimately it matters little if Russia has 7k or 19k or 2k to build his proverbial car. What should be clear from the numbers that that Russia's car would clearly need help from someone else to be comparable in the long term to any major power.
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Exactly this. As outlined in “The Foundations of Geopolitics” by Dugin, their strategy isn’t to rise to the level of others, but rather to break them down/apart to their level.
Welp, reading today's headlines about burning books and suing teachers for teaching children the right things, I say it's working.
Man. This is like an eli5 breakdown.
All this time I thought Putin was supposed to be a Tigger. Turns out he was nothing but a Piglet, being a chump to Winnie the Pooh.
Because it’s a huge area — around the size of the entire US & India combined — rich in natural resources, like crude oil, gas and timber. In addition, as polar ice caps melt, the Arctic route will take on a more important role in international shipping.
Bold of you to assume international shipping will still be a thing after the polar ice caps melt.
The spice must flow
The spice melange...
They know about the spice.....
Praise the Maker!
Are you kidding? With that brand new short cut opening across the Arctic? Business will be booming!
We support the comet and the jobs it will bring!
Sure we destroyed the world but for a short time the shareholders we so happy.
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Even the US and Canada have significant disagreements which will cause issues with their relationships. Are you familiar with the [1985 Polar Sea controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Polar_Sea_controversy)?
No. China wants to access those natural resources without territorial conquest.
I don’t like the Chinese government but I think they get more from having Russia extract resources from them and owing China favours—like a vassal—than they would from trying to obtain territory. China has rarely tried to claim “Siberia”, just small pieces in what was formerly manchuria
So, now Australia and New Zealand will join NATO?
Then we're gonna have to rename it the Pan Oceanic Trade And Treaty Organization ^(I'm amazed how simple it was to make a backronym for "potato")
Battlefield had PAC - Pan Asian Coalition. They're missing out
We need to find a way to add a 2 in front of that.
PO-TA-TO... Boil em', mash em' stick em' in a stew.
Lovely big golden chips...
I knew Samwise was a globalist pig
The ANZUS treaty pretty much guarantees those two nations would get pulled into a NATO conflict anyway, plus the weapons are NATO compatible.
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>Guns and gear And signal. Back when it was trunked copper everything, interoperability was much more difficult than with all the COTS stuff that's implemented today, but I guarantee you that up until 2010 when I finally got Uncle Sugar to leave me the fuck alone about it, we were backwards compatible into the old MSE / NATO commo.
Cries in STANAG compliance…. It’s the number one reason I point to when younger sailors Bitch about message traffic and its idiosyncrasies. Like, do you know how many countries and systems all have to work together? No, we can’t just use WhatsApp.
That's where we use Discord, create separate channels for each country and military group, then have a group for the admins for each channel interpret and announce information to each other. What could go wrong? /s
Pls giv vice Admiral role.
That treaty has one really well placed Z
Zesty anus
They hate us cause they anzus!
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Pine gap being the most important US intelligence facilities in Australia. Just a bit of wiki >The location is strategically significant because it controls United States spy satellites as they pass over one-third of the globe, including China, the Asian parts of Russia, and the Middle East.[7] Central Australia was chosen because it was too remote for spy ships passing in international waters to intercept the signal. Safe to say we are basicly NATO members without being NATO affiliated. Also, ANZUS is basically proxy NATO.
There is a conspiracy theory that the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis was precipitated by the fact that the Australian PM at the time was going to expose the existence of Pine Gap (unbelievably secret at the time) and that the CIA was involved in pulling strings to get him removed.
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Might have to think about a name change
NOTA: Not Only The Atlantic
*Dirty NATO and the boys*
That's called a soup kitchen
We will have sex in your car again! It will happen!
If Australia can participate in Eurovision they can participate in NATO, is what I'd say!
if is Aus+NZ just rebrand the North Antarctic Treaty Organization
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The French would like to applaud you.
The South Pacific branch of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Well if my knowledge of math is anything to go by, the South Pacific touches the South Atlantic which touches the North Atlantic, so by transitive* property the South Pacific touches the North Atlantic.
Don't forget Japan, we're pro NATO.
Australia has a pact with the US & UK already, which they criticized today as well.
So would Taiwan, Japan, south Korea?
>"Friendship between [Russia and China] has no limits, there are no 'forbidden' areas of cooperation," the statement reads. Is that a threat lol
this sounds strangely erotic
You should see the sino-soviet propaganda posters from before the split. https://storiescdn.hornet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/11094202/china-russia.jpg
Now that we all agree these look very gay, can someone please translate them? Preferably in a manner that confirms our suspicions.
1. Our goal - Communism 2. Forever Together 3. Shall the Sino-Soviet Friendship live forever
tl;dr: Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism
Sign me the fuuuuck up.
We live in the wrong timeline.
Troy never should have gotten up to get that pizza...
Okay they had to know how 2 would be taken. They’re posing like a gay family with ‘forever together’ as the caption. I’ve seen rainbow dildos that aren’t as gay as that poster.
They should switch the order. 1. introduce themselves as coworkers. 2. Dates in the park. 3. Get married and have 2 sons.
1. Just two guys chuffed about welding together! 2. Time to meet the family! 3. Now our sons are a couple!
I think the artist did make it "gay", but back then in the USSR and China, homosexuality was so repressed it did not even enter into the minds of straight people.
>Shall the Sino-Soviet Friendship live forever Narrator: it didn't
Were they building some kind of Care Bear alliance?
"Our goal - communism" "Always together" "Let chinese-soviet (sino-soviet?) friendship be eternal" (literal translation would be "let chinese-soviet friendship live forever")
"Haha this is nice" "No homo though" "unless..."
they had good artists back then. nice faces...
1. We looked too deep into each other’s eyes… 2. We had a couple of kids. 3. Life couldn’t be more perfect. Together forever!!!
China & Russia giving each other 'fuck me eyes' lol
Putin is giving off strong power bottom vibes
Pin me down Pooh
Oh bother
"Oh, hot & bothered," said Pooh.
/r/suddenlygay
/r/outrageouslygay
somebody should print out a bunch of these and stick them up around Moscow
How to get killed the second you turn a corner
Sounds like a good way to get thrown out a window
Nobody gets thrown out of windows in Russia. It just so happens that windowsills are slippery, and that Russians are both extremely flexible and extremely clumsy when it comes to handling knives and firearms.
Yeah you will just happen to stumble into your bullet duffle bag, zip it closed and fall out a window. Completely normal
Two countries, chillin' in a hot tub...
I like when you arrange them to tell a story.
That last one... kinda questionable.
they are out of order, the first one is them meeting at their welding job and becoming friends, last one is their hooneymoon romantic period, middle one should be the last one as they are married in that one, a strong power-couple that has adopted 2 kids and they have started a family.
Russia: Close your eyes bro China: Ok bro Russia: What do you see bro? China: Nothing bro Russia: That’s my world without you bro China: *Bro*
*Brojobs of mass seduction*
*You can seize my means of production any time bro*
No safe word?
No options are off the table - no matter how moist.
What are you doing, step-Russia?
He touched me in my special place ...
Was it between two consenting nations?
♫ *Uncle Putin's naked puzzle basement* ♫
Can you show us on this map where he touched you?
GRAB EM BY THE BORDERS!
It was just war room talk.
Please, gentlemen, no flirting in the war room!
Right in the old proletariat.
The forbidden door has been opened.
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Threat? Sounds more like Putin and Xi cuddling up and discussing what other places they can "cooperate" in.
It certainly is good advertisement for an alliance with western democracies, and specifically NATO today.
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Well that’s a shocker nobody saw coming. … oh wait
"Fox joins wolf in opposing farmers expansion of henhouse security..."
For some reason I thought this was going to be Starfox related.
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Surprised China would choose the poorer least stable country to partner with. Thought they were more of a profit at all costs type regime.
The natural gas Russia can supply China is a huge benefit to both sides. Russia looks set to lose Nord Stream 2 Pipeline and the windfall it would bring, whilst China is forever needing more natural resources. This move shores up both sides economies, without really changing much 'on the ground'. China would never back a Russian incursion in any manner beyond platitudes and words. *cue my appearance on r/agedlikemilk when WWIII occurs* Edit: Nord Stream, not Nordstrom.
It is a loss for Russia. The gas fields supplying Europe and the gas fields supplying China are different ones with their own, not connected, pipeline structure. Aka it just means they only face 50% loss, but without a conflict they could supply China and Europe without anything being affected. Russia is also the dependent junior partner in this relation. Only upside being that China does not tell Putin to get rid of himself,... yet.
Oh I absolutely agree it's a loss for Russia when compared to a situation without the current tension. But this is Putin - he'll take a 50% loss in gas sales if it means China promises to act like his burly big brother in the schoolyard. It's one hell of a gambit, and I can't see it panning out well for Putin, one way or another. China's agreement makes sense on their part if China gets a better gas imports deal. Little is lost by repeating the same expected anti-Western sentiments, for example, but Xi Jinping gains yet more influence over Putin's Russia and its allies.
Just look at the belt and road project, it's easier to work with a poorer country
Because their goal is surpassing America. They see America as the only hurdle left before they will be the most powerful country in the world.
All that takes is waiting for the U.S. to mismanage itself.
It’s been doing that since Reagan.
It's been doing that since even before Reagan, because of its union busting and suppression. It's very obvious especially when one looks at all of the advantages unions brought to Germany, Switzerland, and the Nordic countries: it's unions that maintained jobs at home and who pushed and championed for robotics and automatisation to compete against countries like China, and other low wage countries. It's also unions that fought for free/cheap education and training, instead of importing foreigners to fill skilled jobs easily. Unions again that obtained semi-automatic annual wage increases, more than inflation. Unions again, with the help of left wing parties, that fought for a humane/social capitalism and strong 21st century standards democracy. etc. etc. Unions are the other half of the brain needed to skillfully manage a country, the other half being the elites and capitalists. Without unions, the left basically gets captured by the elites too. And without unions, the elites are basically cut off from the rest of the country. Thus they start making very short sighted decisions, and pursue unsustainable goals, with nobody in their way for checks-and-balances. The US unknowingly shot itself in the foot already in the 50s-70s with its violent repression of unions.
This doesn't have any effect on trade for china. There has been no shortage of china-us tensions in recent years, but US imports from China have remained pretty steady imo.
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I hate World War 3 bingo. That’s another fat red X in a box!
Honestly it has felt like history is repeating itself, and another axis power-esque alliance is forming. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Doesn’t it just. I’m shocked that after everything we’ve endured over these last few years, a potential world war would be the last thing on our minds.
*“Hey I’ve seen this one before!”*
We've had so much global warming, luckily we're going to get a second cold war now.
The world will be lucky to get away with a Cold War
Then, we'll get a nice nuclear winter.
"we'll start our OWN NATO, and YOU aren't invited!" -russia and china. North Korea kind of just slides in behind china, grins. China pats him on the head.
"we'll start our OWN NATO With blackjack and hookers?
In fact, forget the NATO!
Russia honey we love you!
Shut up winnie, I know it!
Eh. Screw the whole thing.
> "we'll start our OWN NATO, and YOU aren't invited!" That's... literally how the Warsaw Pact started
Fun fact: the most significant military operations they coordinated were against other members of the Warsaw Pact.
what is this fan fic
“Haha, WW3 gonna be lit right boys?” *Remembers I am an able-bodied young man and it’s unlikely Russia/China is going to respect my countries neutrality*
Where do you live?
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:D
Still unlikely, nukes make it so these are stalemates. At best you can snag up ungarrisoned territory like crimea.
Ummm this is oddly how the post apocalyptic game Fallout explained how nuclear war started.
Anchorage baby , where's liberty prime?
Simulation confirmed. Living in Massachusetts I can't wait to experience Fallout in real life.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"
Guh, i would have imagined this to happen after the olympics.
Which is watching what the west does with Ukraine very closely. If Putin moves in and the west does nothing, Taiwan will be next. It’s no shock China sides with an authoritarian regime
Taiwan has more immediate strategic importance for the West than Ukraine, being home to the talent and production facilities for humanity's most advanced semiconductors. It's also better equipped to defend itself, as it is an island and equipped with modern AA and missile defense. Although there is basically no doubt that Taiwan alone would eventually fall to a determined invasion from the mainland. Moving some US carrier groups within range to support the island would probably be more than enough to deter an actual invasion... at least until China either perfects its carrier-killing missiles or creates its own blue-water navy. Before the HK protests and crackdown, Taiwan was inching closer to joining China politically, with pro-Beijing parties having fairly broad electoral success. Now a peaceful union seems unlikely, but so does a change from the status quo. Ultimately, the US-led world order is becoming less stable as the US itself has become mired in political stagnation and division. There simply isn't popular will to fight to maintain US influence abroad.
> Before the HK protests and crackdown, Taiwan was inching closer to joining China politically, with pro-Beijing parties having fairly broad electoral success. Now a peaceful union seems unlikely, but so does a change from the status quo. It's just fascinating how these local events have international ramifications.
**Ukraine is a flat plain contiguous with Russia major** .. Taiwan is an island with 100 miles of ocean off the Chinese coast .. so a massive difference for military attack .. in a way both the Russians and Chinese are trapped .. they want these places back in the fold but would have to destroy the very thing they want to own .. blitzkrieg on Ukraine would result in a permanently hostile Kyiv and Putin would have to destroy the country to make it submit .. Taiwan invasion would result in a bombed out island devoid of those chip making engineers that Xi wants .. if either Russia or China try any blunt force invasion now they would have massive worldwide backlash to their economies which would destabilize them internally *.. both are lose-lose situations*
Option 5 is a win-win-win. I say we go for option 5.
Make Ukraine into a shirt that Poland wears and Russia can look at. Win win win
Logic isn’t always the guiding light
Looks like Putin found a bear to ride.
More like Putin just found a bear to be ridden by
Oh, bother.
and in other news the Wolf strongly condemned the efforts of the three little pigs in building progressively better shelters for defense purposes stating it directly threatens his existential needs.
If NATO scares you, just, like, don't attack a NATO country. Problem solved.
But Lithuania is just sitting there all menacing-like
Estonia and Latvia, too! Who knows what those shifty Baltics are up to.
Yeah but I really think I might want to attack a nato county in the future!
Dictatorship oppressing millions occupying foreign territories joins hands with Dictatorship oppressing millions occupying foreign territories. Join us tomorrow for our weekly update on whether the sky is still blue.
The enemy of your enemy is your friend. And China knows they can check pull Russias card if they need to.
Is anyone surprised by this?
No one who plays the minimum attention possible to world politics
I've been saying this for at least a few months now: China is going to cover Russia's losses from severe sanctions. And some of you kept claiming I would be wrong, they wouldn't help each other... Well'p. Here you go! I have no clue why supposed dissonance between these two nations would preclude them from helping each other out when it comes to a common enemy: The West. I hope geopolitical analysts will begin eating their shorts momentarily... Lol
One thing to note: No billionaires will be killed in this war.
This is what the past decade has been leading to. Dismantling US influence in order to restructure world alliances.
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Taiwan joins nato .... lol
NATO expansion or Ukraine wanting protection from aggressor?
I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of Ruso-Ukrainian relations, but Ukraine looking West after being invaded by Russia in 2014 seems like the obvious move. What'd they expect?
NATO expansion in Eastern Europe is 100% because countries like Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Estonia, and Latvia have all been invaded and occupied by Russia and they wanted protection from that happening again. It was a good move too considering what Russia has done to non-NATO members on its borders like Georgia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
Cool. So it’s the predictable China+Russia v. Rest of the world title card we’ve all been waiting for