While his troops struggle to regroup in the face of a lightning-fast Ukrainian offensive in the northeast, Vladimir Putin is in Samarkand, fabled halfway point of the silk road in Uzbekistan, for a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). While he is there he has a busy schedule of face-to-face meetings with various world leaders who have yet to condemn his invasion of Ukraine.
One of Putin’s key meetings will have been with Xi Jinping. Early reports say the Russian president acknowledged Xi’s “concern” about the war. But he thanked the Chinese president for his “balanced position” on Ukraine. Full details of these talks will emerge in coming days.
It’s likely the Russian president is relieved to be able get away from the Kremlin for a few days, given the pressure he must surely be feeling over the military setbacks of the past week or so. He won’t be unaware of the tone of reports in the western media that are confidently predicting that Ukraine could actually win the war.
