A discussion with Armenian-American scholar Pietro Shakarian on Russia, China, and the forthcoming 80th Anniversary of Victory Day.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s trip to Moscow doesn’t bode well for a quick end to the war.

Donald Trump and his team enter negotiations with Russia armed with a set of false, misleading assumptions. Donald Trump reportedly continues to believe, as does his team of negotiators, that Russia is suffering economically and militarily and wants to end the war in Ukraine. This is not true, at least as far as the folks in Moscow are concerned. Russia’s objectives are clear — restore normal relations with the United States and obtain an agreement to end the threat that NATO presents to Russia. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, and others, have been very clear in stating that Russia will not be bamboozled again into accepting a ceasefire with a promise of peace ahead. They made that mistake in halting their offensive operations after the 2015 battle in Debaltsevo as part of the Minsk II agreement.

How smart is President Trump?

Beijing and Washington should take the lead on a plan to offer a collective security guarantee to Kyiv and Moscow as a foundation for a deal

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announcement on Wednesday that Beijing’s Special Representative on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will set out from home on March 2 on a “second round of shuttle diplomacy on seeking a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis” may seem a mismatch. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin was the guest of honour at China’s celebration of ten years of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) held on October 17-18 in Beijing, where everyone who was anyone in the development world attended the party.

Washington needs all the help it can get to prevent a regional conflagration.

As Xi and his Russian counterpart meet, both are facing calls to do more to ease tension in the Middle East, amid fresh scrutiny of a relationship that looks increasingly one-sided.

The power dynamic in Northeast Asia is undergoing a dramatic change against the backdrop of the “no limits” strategic partnership between China and Russia. The collapse of Kiev’s counteroffensive” and abject defeat in the war with Russia may compel Biden administration to put “boots on the ground” in western Ukraine, triggering a global confrontation, and, equally, the US-China relations are at their lowest point since their normalisation in the 1970s, while Taiwan issue may potentially turn into a casus belli of war.