The US Sees Russia as a Backup Airfield

Western media writes that Russia is no longer seen as the main threat in the United States. Now, China has been adopted as America’s Carthage. The United States, through Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, declared a crusade against Chinese “tyranny,” and called on all freedom-loving nations to join.

Such a castling has become, of course, a great tragedy for Russian patriots who are used to looking at the world through a prism of hostility and eternal confrontation with Washington’s regional committee, and also seeing the greatness of Russia through this confrontation. After all, several Russian experts only portray Moscow as the United States’ main obstacle to its subjugation of the entire world.

In fact, it is Russia that protected the Syrian people from American aggressors, derailed Washington’s plans to turn Ukraine into an Eastern NATO base, encourages European countries to fight for independence from American dictatorship and destroys terrorist organizations bred by the U.S. (like the Islamic State group, which is banned in the Russian Federation). And it so happens that none of this is important, and Americans are much more afraid of China than Russia.

Actually, this castling should be celebrated as a holiday throughout the streets of Russia. To be the enemy of the United States is very expensive and not at all honorable. The enemy is faced with sanctions from all sides, causing serious economic damage and hindering the growth of citizen welfare. Large-scale information operations are being carried out against the enemy (see the Skripal case), which are designed to discredit them in the eyes of the people of the empire itself, and its federates (Europeans), and they become a pretext for new hostile actions.

Finally, other countries are afraid to cooperate with the enemy of the United States, just because they do not want to fall under the roller of American sanctions (already issued legally), and in principle, they do not want to damage their relationship with Washington. And among the fearful were, by the way, our very own allies — the Chinese, who refused to implement a number of projects with Russia, as well as judiciously abstained on a number of Russian proposals in the U.N. Security Council.

And what does Russia gain from its status as “the main enemy of the United States”? The satisfying feeling of its own greatness? Creating anti-American feelings in its own country to justify actions in domestic politics? It is unlikely that these benefits (if you can call them that) are sufficient compensation for the losses. Therefore, Moscow happily presents this ensign to its Chinese partners.

The Power of Momentum

However, unfortunately, it is not entirely possible to give this ensign to the Chinese. Not because Russia clings onto it so strongly, but because the United States is trying to remain in the Van Damme position — the split between obsolete and new threats.

In theory, Washington, which has deprived Russia of its status as the main enemy, should be trying to convince Russia to help in the fight against the Chinese threat. After all, the Russian Federation has a key, even critical significance in the implementation (or conversely, the failure) of Chinese plans to protect itself from American pressure. Russia has a colossal influence in West Asia, across which Chinese trade routes to Europe are located, which borders one of the Achilles’ heels of China — the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Russia is a storehouse of resources that can help China in the event of a blockade by the West. Russia shares thousands of kilometers of border with China, which is not very heavily guarded.

Russia controls the North Sea route, the most important future trade artery between the East and West, and the U.S. Navy cannot access it. And Americans understand this. “The very idea that it would be useful for Russia to be involved in anti-Chinese opposition sits in the minds of the American mainstream media, and in the minds of most representatives of the American foreign policy elite,” says Dmitri Suslov, assistant director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and expert at the “Valdai” International Discussion Club.

The problem is that they do not know how to how to connect. Pompeo, as well as other American politicians and experts, have called on Moscow to join an amicable anti-Chinese alliance, which is justified at best by phrases like, “China will become a threat to you in the future.” Meanwhile, the sanctions imposed against Russia remain in place and have even been strengthened (see the U.S. attack on the Nord Stream 2). Tales of Russia’s intention to participate in the American election are broadcast again, the dialogue on strategic stability is still in a deep coma and the plan to deploy short and medium-range missiles in Europe (i.e., the elimination of the very architecture of strategic stability that is built on the understanding of an imminent and totally retaliatory strike in the event of a nuclear attack) remains.

There is a feeling that Russia is perceived as a sort of backup airfield — a familiar, traditional and comfortable enemy, to which one can always return to if China turns out to be too inconvenient of an enemy.

In these circumstances, it is clear that Russia has no incentive to maintain benevolent neutrality (never mind assistance) regarding American plans to contain the People’s Republic of China. There is also no incentive to remove the “information and political” armor, to stop restraining Americans on all fronts from the Middle East to Ukraine. At least as long as the United States does not rise up from the Van Damme position, or does not tear its muscles.