US President Joe Biden tried his best to drive a wedge between China and Russia during a press conference after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden said, “Russia is in a very, very difficult spot right now” and Russia “is being squeezed by China.” He also said that Russia has “a multi-thousand-mile border with China. China is moving ahead… seeking to be the most powerful economy in the world and the largest and the most powerful military in the world. You [Russia] are in a situation where your economy is struggling.”Biden may feel embarrassed to talk nonsense like this during the face-to-face meeting with Putin because if he did, Putin would very likely refute him immediately. Such kind of baseless provocation is a humiliation of the Russian people, treating one of the most powerful countries in the world as an idiot. Which country is squeezing Russia strategically? What is the source of Russia’s economic difficulties in recent years? A large number of facts are much too obvious. The US has caused waves of harms to Russia and Biden just wants to pass the blame to China. This is an illusion that is possible only under serious political autism and narcissism. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the US carried out an incredibly brutal squeeze on Russia’s strategic space. NATO expanded eastward to include all the former Warsaw Pact countries and advanced its position to the three Baltic states which were under the Soviet Union’s influence. Russia’s strategic space was almost dug up by NATO, and the US’ policy to squeeze Russia was extreme. There has rarely been such a vicious unilateral pressure between major powers in history. In the view of many outsiders, Russia has been restrained long enough. But when the US and the West wanted to cut off Ukraine, the “umbilical cord to Russia,” Moscow chose to strike back. Russia’s economic difficulties are directly resulted from the joint sanctions imposed by the US and other Western countries. According to Russian statistics, the US alone has imposed more than 90 sanctions on Russia. Together with European sanctions, there are currently more than 400 Russian individuals and more than 500 entities on the Western blacklist. The trade volume between Russia and Europe in 2013 was about $410 billion but it dropped to $219 billion in 2020. The US and European sanctions have impacted Russia’s energy and military industries and cut off Russia’s previous financing channels. Besides, the US and Europe also weakened the ruble, leading to its sharp depreciation. Due to the relatively big uncertainty in the Russian business environment, some Russia’s capital continues to flow out while Western investors are hesitant to enter the Russian market. The China-Russia land border is indeed long but it is an undisputed border that is highly peaceful. People from two sides of the border share active economic exchanges.
–The Daily Mail-Global Times News Exchange Item
