Vladimir Putin has just suggested Russia will help to uphold a “just and democratic” world with China in his latest set of bewildering comments.
The Russian president was speaking to China’s visiting foreign minister Wang Yi during a visit to St Petersburg on Thursday when he started waxing lyrical about how the two countries would work together.
According to TASS, the Russian news agency, Putin said: “Russia and China jointly uphold the principles of a just and democratic world order based on international law, sovereignty and equality.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, in what has widely been described as a land grab.
Moscow has illegally annexed 18% of the European country and coerced many Ukrainians in those occupied areas to vote in the Russian presidential election.
To make matters worse, Putin eliminated any feasible competition, meaning his victory was no surprise – and he’s been in power, almost continuously, for 25 years.
Russia does like to maintain the illusion of being “just”, though.
The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed to be a democratic state, even declaring in March that Russia’s democracy is “the best in the world”.
Although the Ukraine war has left Putin rather isolated on the world stage, there are still a handful of countries on good terms with Moscow.
Some of the president’s remaining allies will be attending the BRICS summit next month.
Set up in 2006, BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates – is an intergovernmental organisation, which Putin last year praised as a counterbalance to the US’s dominance.
The Russian president could not go in person in 2023, embarrassingly, because of the international arrest warrant out for him, but this year the summit will be in Russia.
Excitedly promoting the event, Putin said: “Many countries share our approaches to the world order.
“They are eager to become members of our organisation and to cooperate with it.
“We will do everything to prepare relevant decisions on the basis of consensus, customary in our relations.”
Putin has previously vowed to introduce “more democracy and stability” to the world but is still refusing to hold any kind of peace talks with Ukraine and repeatedly issuing nuclear threats to the West.