In his first appearance at an international forum since the Wagner mutiny, President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Tuesday projected domestic stability and international solidarity with China, India and other powers unaligned with the United States and Europe.
Speaking at a virtual summit of the SCO, an economic and security forum founded by China and Russia in 2001, Putin thanked the member states for their backing following the brief insurrection, which he claimed had no popular support in Russia. He also sought to cast the summit as a sign of international support for his invasion of Ukraine.
For Putin, the summit offered an opportunity to demonstrate strength in the aftermath of the Wagner uprising, but it was also a test of an organisation that he helped to found, as rising tensions between China and India over border disputes and New Delhi’s Quad membership threaten to expose cracks in the multilateral forum.
Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, addressed those tensions in their prepared remarks at the summit. Instead, Xi reiterated long-held grievances against the United States by calling for an end to “hegemonism” and “power politics”. His remarks echoed Putin’s calls for a new “multipolar” world. nyt
Speaking at a virtual summit of the SCO, an economic and security forum founded by China and Russia in 2001, Putin thanked the member states for their backing following the brief insurrection, which he claimed had no popular support in Russia. He also sought to cast the summit as a sign of international support for his invasion of Ukraine.
For Putin, the summit offered an opportunity to demonstrate strength in the aftermath of the Wagner uprising, but it was also a test of an organisation that he helped to found, as rising tensions between China and India over border disputes and New Delhi’s Quad membership threaten to expose cracks in the multilateral forum.
Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, addressed those tensions in their prepared remarks at the summit. Instead, Xi reiterated long-held grievances against the United States by calling for an end to “hegemonism” and “power politics”. His remarks echoed Putin’s calls for a new “multipolar” world. nyt