View from Hong Kong: Vladimir Putin has already won, whether you like it or not

Vladimir Putin with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in Kazan.
Photo: Kremlin.ru

The West’s proxy war is floundering while its moral case against Russia has self-destructed over its full complicity in Israel’s actions, notes ‘The South China Morning Post’.

So much for being the international pariah that the West has made him out to be. At Kazan as host of the BRICS summit, a beaming Vladimir Putin this week welcomed the heads of state and other top officials from 32 countries, including the bloc’s four new entrants – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates – as well as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

A long list of countries – 40 if some reports can be believed – have expressed interest in joining, so much so the original Brics nations are now bickering among themselves over who and how fast they should be admitted.

Also this week, Russia joined Iran and Oman to conduct naval exercises in the Indian Ocean, with Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Qatar and Bangladesh participating as observers.

The BRICS summit may not yet herald a new global order and financial system, as the Russian president has grandly proclaimed, but it’s clear he doesn’t lack friends around the world who share those same goals. Outside the West, he has many discreet allies – from India to the Arab states, from Africa to the many -stans in central Asia – perfectly willing to do business with Russia, and it’s not just for discounted oil and gas either.

China is not Putin’s only big-time partner, though Washington and Brussels may want you to think that.

The much-touted Western unity has crumbled. The next president of the United States could be, again, Donald Trump, who has vowed to end the Ukraine war quickly. He is right to think that, just like Joe Biden was right to exit Afghanistan, though it seems to be in the nature of US foreign policy to dig new holes as soon as the country pulls itself out of one.

It’s irrelevant whether the rest of the world wants to side with Moscow or sympathise with Kyiv. They just never consider the war their problem. Yes, a big European problem, and even arguably the collective West’s, but not theirs.

However, the West has made it everyone’s problem, and that’s pushing them to hedge their bets with BRICS. They want a potential trade or financial escape route in case Uncle Sam turns nasty.

They have seen how Washington and Brussels have weaponised the global financial, trade and internet systems against Russia. They fear they may one day end up at the receiving end of the same treatment, especially when the US nowadays imposes severe sanctions against countries, companies and individuals at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t even make a pretence at fairness or due process any more.

But Russia, it turns out, is not Cuba or Venezuela, whose economy has been crushed by US sanctions. The IMF’s GDP growth forecast for the full year for Russia is 3.6 per cent.

The country’s rapid economic restructuring and rebound have been extraordinary, though few Western politicians or pundits would admit it.

They convinced themselves that Russia had feet of clay, and that the Putin regime would collapse. Quite the reverse has happened. While Russia initially underestimated Ukraine’s resilience, the West still refuses to acknowledge Russian endurance.

Now it’s Ukraine that is collapsing. The UN Population Fund estimates the country may have lost more than 20 per cent out of a population of roughly 45 million since 2014 (then a coup d'etat took place in Kyiv).

The West claims Russia cannot be allowed to win as it will trample on the principles of national sovereignty and morality.

After all, the Western powers, led by the US, have not only accepted but enabled Israel’s complete destruction of Gaza in addition to its invasion of Lebanon, a sovereign country too. Those who have armed Netanyahu to the teeth have no moral case against Putin.

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