China asked Russia to delay invasion of Ukraine until after Olympics, Western intel shows
Source: CNN
A Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials, in early February, requested that senior Russian officials wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion into Ukraine, US officials said Wednesday.
US officials broadly view the report as credible, but its particulars are open to interpretation, according to one source familiar with the intelligence. Although the request was made around the time that President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympics — where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping — it is not clear from the report whether Putin addressed the matter with Xi directly, the source said.
Western intelligence officials warily watching Putin’s buildup on the Ukrainian border at the time had anticipated that Putin might delay any military action until after the Olympics to avoid angering China.
After Putin and Xi’s meeting, Moscow and Beijing issued a joint statement declaring that their partnership had “no limits” and condemning NATO expansion — a key pillar of Putin’s justification for attacking Ukraine.
That statement has elevated Western concerns about a burgeoning alliance between China and Russia.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-02-22/index.html
What drove these two enemies into each other's arms?
China's population and economy with Russia's nuclear arsenal and natural resources are a formidable combination.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Because China wants to do the same with Taiwan.
But the deeper reason - energy!
World
Russia’s $55bn pipeline gamble on China’s demand for gas
Putin pivots to Beijing with biggest energy project since fall of Soviet Union
April 3 2018 by Henry Foy in Neryungri
The bright afternoon January sun offers little respite from the minus 40C temperature for the pipeline construction workers crunching through the snow in Russia’s Far East region.
In the sprawling pine forests of the country’s eastern wilderness, the cold air burns cheeks and catches in throats, as the thick, grey exhaust fumes from the colossal earthmoving diggers hang like clumps of candyfloss.
The four-dozen engineers near the town of Neryungri are part of an 8,500 crew working all-year round to build Gazprom’s Power of Siberia, a 3,000km pipeline that runs from the gasfields of eastern Siberia to the Chinese border in the south-east.
The pipeline is Russia’s most ambitious, costly and geopolitically critical energy project since the fall of the Soviet Union, and represents a $55bn bet on uncharted territory by the world’s biggest gas company.
https://ig.ft.com/gazprom-pipeline-power-of-siberia/
What if Pootie tells Xi to stop shipping orders to the US?
