Deal to Eliminate American Unipolarism

With a single gas deal with China, the sanctions system that the United States and the European Union had imposed on Russia because of the Ukrainian crisis collapsed. Vladimir Putin emerged victorious from the geopolitical face-off that began over three years ago in Syria and does not show any sign of ending with Ukraine. In the face-off, Russia won new allies that support global multi-polarism, most importantly among them China, which has begun to exercise its economic power and regional ambitions toward Japan and Vietnam on the South China Sea.

In truth, the Western pressure throughout the Ukrainian crisis and what followed in terms of sanctions did not lead to any retreat in the Russian position regarding Syria. The most obvious evidence of this was Moscow’s use of its veto power against the French resolution to refer Syria to the international criminal court. The veto came as a clear message that Putin is unwilling to negotiate, not in Syria and not in Ukraine. Meanwhile, he knocks loudly on China’s door in order to form a global multipolar system that would eliminate the unipolarism of the United States and the West in general that has prevailed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the race to the Chinese market that the major world powers are engaged in, it appears that Russia is the winner. Each time the tension between Russia and the West increases, Moscow leans more and more toward Asia in search of markets other than Western Europe, where Putin may have been betting at one time that the bridges that were built over more than a decade, especially with Germany, would guarantee that the page of hostility would be turned forever. Nevertheless, Germany did not play an important role during the takeover in the Ukrainian crisis and took sides with the American position, participating symbolically in the sanctions against Russia.

In this renewed conflict with the West, Russia is not getting into bed with China alone. It is also trying to revive old friendships, from Egypt to Iraq to Cuba. It is furthermore trying to make a deal with Iran to exchange oil for goods with a value of over $20 billion, which would protect Tehran and Moscow from the inconvenience of the Western sanctions imposed on both countries.

If the West was counting on sanctioning Russia economically and recruiting Putin politically, the Chinese option leaves the door wide open for the Russian president to stand up against Western policies in Syria and Ukraine. In the fourth Russian-Chinese double veto against resolutions regarding Syria in the U.N. Security Council, there lies a double message to the West.