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V.P. Phone Home
"We share the same views on the causes, course and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape, in the face of unprecedented pressure and provocations from the West," Vladimir Putin told Xi Jinping on Friday, during a Zoom call.
It wasn't really a Zoom call. It was a secure "videoconference," and although I imagine the two communicated more times this year than the public knows, Friday's chat represented the first official talks since an in-person meeting in Uzbekis
https://youtu.be/ekeq4szDmJo
If you haven’t had a chance to watch it, take a few minutes and enjoy Putin’s rendition of “Blueberry Hill” …you’ll recognize the faces of notable American celebrities in the audience.
As they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Hilarious, and creepy as hell!
Stranger than fiction indeed
Thank you, H: “Putin’s Russia is a vassal state of Xi’s China . . .” is a reminder that at best the US should treat the People’s Republic of China the way it treated the old Soviet Union. Boycott, divest, and sanction the PRC.
There are two observations here that I found compelling. First was the idea that China is letting Putin do his adventure in the Ukraine to feed his ego and provide a laboratory to show how the West might react if China pursued a similar action in Taiwan. I hadn’t really thought of that. I had thought of the idea (yesterday, actually) that Russia was starting to resemble North Korea more than it does China. Essentially, all Russia can contribute to the world is its dwindling energy resources, and meager support for other rogue states. Russia has always wanted to be considered a part of Europe but it has just never evolved and is now once again an under-developed nation reduced to selling off its natural resources, to the detriment of its own internal future. It just can’t really do anything for the world at large that benefits the Russian people. Russia has no real lasting source of comparative advantage. It’s an empty suit with no moat.
I love this comment, Mr. L. I think Navalny circa 2020 offered some hope that Russia could join the rest of the civlized world in the 21st century. I still have that hope, but Putin and his henchmen are doing their best, short of executing him, to render him a non-factor.