President Putin hailed the strategic cooperation between the two nations as a stabilizing force against unprecedented Western influence, during a video conference with his Chinese counterpart..
In his opening remarks after exchanging niceties, the Kremlin chief invited Xi Jinping to Moscow for the coming spring.
He talked about the current relationship between Russia and China and called bilateral relations the best in history. He also said that he expected trade between the two countries to grow despite unfavorable global market conditions.
Another very important focal point of the talks was that Russia is seeking to strengthen its military ties with China.
In the current situation of tense international and regional relations, the significance of the Russia China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era has been further enhanced as an important stabilizer on the international stage.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin
President Xi's opening remarks were rather similar in tone. He also expressed China's willingness to increase political cooperation with Russia and even be global partners against the background of a difficult international situation for things
Your Excellency President Putin, my old friend, it's a great pleasure to meet you once again. It has become a good tradition for us to hold a video meeting at the end of the year. Under our joint guidance, The China Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era has become more mature and resilient.
Xi Jinping, President of China
While Western nations are waiting eagerly for a softening of tone from China towards Russia, as they continue to attempt to isolate Russia in the global sphere they may have to wait a while longer.
Three weeks before the Ukraine war, Putin met with Xi Jinping in Beijing. During that meeting, a 5000 word joint statement was released, in which the two leaders declared a friendship with no limits between the two countries.
In the joint statement they also express their grievances towards the US and its allies. They also hinted at the transformation of the power dynamics of the world and the formation of a new world order.
Mainstream Western media outlets have been monitoring China's attitude towards Russia eagerly and waiting for it to take a turn. Here are a few sentences from a couple of CNN articles on this issue.
Experts say China's domestic situation has also changed significantly in the months since which could necessitate a different approach to Putin this time around.
More than 10 months into the grinding war, the world looks much different and the dynamic between both partners has shifted accordingly. Experts say Russia's war on Ukraine has served to strengthen Western resolve.
CNN already even hypothesized a Russia without a strong Putin, and how that hypothetical version of Russia could, maybe, possibly, warm up to the west instead of China.
Of course, these are all predicated on their assumption that Russia is already losing the war. But is the West as united against Russia, as its media outlets want it to seem, or does it prefer to make it seem that way in the face of the enemy, even if the backing for sanctions, and aid to Ukraine are gained through pressure and blackmail?
The media onslaught pushing a particular anti Russian narrative was meant to make it easier to justify the billions and billions of dollars poured into Ukraine in the eyes of the public. It was also used to force smaller European countries, who couldn't afford to join the collective alliance against Russia, into conforming, imposing sanctions and agreeing on the oil price cap.
This also included forcing much less powerful countries with far lower GDPs than, for example, France to pay nearly the same amount in aid to Ukraine. It is clear that some of these countries, if not most, cannot afford to these aid commitments; however, their overlords in NATO and the EU are the ones that make decisions for them.
One of the latest stunts in the media machine to justify the massive aid pakages for the Ukraine, especially in the eyes of Americans, is featuring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on the cover of Time Magazine.
The Time magazine feature is particularly ironic and this is not the first time that Time Magazine has been used as a publicity stunt, while disregarding the more questionable choices for persons of the year.
Even more recently Zelensky's appearance in the US Congress was also viewed as a publicity stunt by a certain US Senator.
I didn't go to the speech because I didn't want to be part of a photo op asking for more money from the United States government, when they have not given us a single piece of accounting on anything they have spent.
Josh Hawley, US Senator, Missouri
And as mentioned previously, they have now set their sights on China looking for anything they can find in the Chinese leaders tone, to see if they can portray Russia as even more isolated than they have been portraying it.
Yet so far, they have no material to work with, in this relentless media campaign that follows a very specific agenda, in which no other voice is allowed.