EDITORIAL: SA quite happy to cosy up to the Kremlin autocrat

Although Russian President Vladimir Putin will be encouraged by the visit of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to Moscow this week, perhaps Xi went home the happier of the two. And for good reason.      

China is getting all the oil and gas it needs while Russia distracts the US and the liberal Western democracies with an expensive and potentially unpopular war in Ukraine. Russia is picking up the tab for what is essentially a war against the West. And it’s at great risk to Putin, who has put his own and the country’s future on the line with a conflict whose logic remains a closely guarded Kremlin secret.

Little wonder that Xi hardly mentioned the war while he was being feted in Moscow. And why would he? The longer it goes on the better it is for him, providing him with the perfect cover to further push China’s global agenda under the guise of militating against Western hegemony and economic dominance. 

Besides, China has already put its “12-point’’ peace plan on the table, so he’s done his bit by way of trying to stop the war.  

His “plan” echoes much of what SA is proposing. It glibly offers noble-sounding advice on halting hostilities and an end to a “Cold War mentality”, but leaves intact Putin’s grab of large parts of Ukraine. It also elevates his fear of “power blocs” (read Nato) as the principal and legitimate reason for his invasion more than a year ago.

For Xi, Ukraine has become the anvil upon which a new world order will be forged, and the list of developing countries queuing to join Brics he sees as testament to China’s influence and legitimacy. Little wonder he’s happy to let the conflict in Ukraine drag on. 

As Russian drones attacked Kyiv to coincide with Xi’s visit, and as the Americans prepared to expedite the delivery of the Abrams battle tanks later this year, the clouds that presage a global conflict are massing and darkening. Yet this is a moment of historic sunshine for Xi. 

He told Putin as he departed: “Now there are changes that haven’t happened in 100 years. When we are together, we drive these changes.” Putin replied that he agreed, happy to be played by his Chinese visitor. Xi knows the Ukraine war is now the most potent weapon in his arsenal. 

How does the rest of the world feature in this alignment? And SA? 

At the Russia-SA parliamentary forum this week, National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula provided a hint of our true loyalties. 

She told a gathering that included a virtual Putin: “We will continue to lean on you, and you can rest assured that, as a country and as a people of South Africa, we will continue to support the people of Russia.’’ 

What SA wants, we are told, is a seat on the UN Security Council, and we’re looking to Putin to provide it. Even if Ukraine has to be destroyed to achieve this dubious diplomatic end? 

Exactly how SA’s barely camouflaged support of Putin and Xi’s new order is to our benefit as an economy and to our future trade and investment relations is not entirely certain. Will we endure potential sanctions and disinvestment to please the autocrat in the Kremlin? 

Do we feel as strongly as we claim to about supporting a world not dominated by the US that we are prepared to let ourselves be counted among its adversaries, our protestations to the contrary notwithstanding? 

Evidently yes and, if that is the case, let’s hope our gamble pays off because we’re close to betting the house on it now.