Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping hold their first in-person meeting in more than two years Friday as the two presidents find themselves increasingly aligned against a common adversary.
Their summit in Beijing is a conveniently timed show of solidarity on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics. The Russian leader is using the occasion to court his increasingly powerful neighbor to help offset the U.S.’s alliance network, describing the two countries in an interview with Chinese state media as playing an “important stabilizing role.”
The 38th one-on-one exchange between the two long-tenured authoritarian leaders comes as the U.S. and Europe warn of punishing sanctions if Russia invades neighboring Ukraine, something Moscow insists it isn’t planning to do. With growing political, military and economic frictions between China and the U.S, both Moscow and Beijing see an advantage in drawing closer together to support each other on the world stage.
