Business Post's View

Editorial: Could a Chinese chill loosen Putin’s grip on absolute power?

With his war in Ukraine going badly, the last thing the Russian president needs is to incur the displeasure of his powerful opposite number Xi Jinping

Vladimir Putin with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan last week, where the Russian leader said China had ‘questions and concerns’ about the invasion of Ukraine that he was ready to address. Picture: Getty

The leaders of Russia and China declared at a summit earlier this year that their countries had entered into a relationship with “no limits”. For Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the moment was presumably meant to herald a beautiful friendship between two authoritarian powers that had often been at loggerheads during the Cold War and its aftermath.

A few days later, after the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Putin invaded Ukraine. Since then, China has maintained ...