Third Wheel: Trump, Putin or Xi Jinping?

By Jeremy McCoy for VT

In recent years, relations between Russia and the US have deteriorated significantly reaching the level of the times of the Caribbean crisis. Washington openly declares that it considers Moscow to be the main threat, Russia also considers the United States a likely enemy. However, the chance to change the situation came after the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

The President of the United States came under fire for his closeness to Russia, every day he was blamed for allegedly being in contact with the Russians. However, Trump born and educated as a wealthy resident of New York continues to lead the pro-Russian policy stubbornly.

Now Trump pretends that he intends to put an end to the crisis in American-Russian relations. This is evidenced by the fact that some world media warmed up significantly with regard to Russia after this meeting. Moreover, many outlets published articles after the World Cup 2018 stating Russia is not so terrible, it is not necessary to identify it with the Soviet Union and a dialogue on major issues of world politics is quite possible with Moscow. Why does Trump need such a change in relations with Russia? After all, the demonization of Russia, the creation of the image of the enemy is very beneficial to the American military industrial companies who profit from defense orders.

One of the compelling reasons for forcing the US President to consider the possibility of cooperation with Russia (despite its reigning regime) is the prospect of building a coalition against a more serious threat. In 1941 such a threat posed Nazi Germany, in 2018 the danger comes from the People’s Republic of China. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the United States to compete with China and that is why the White House wants to weaken the Celestial Empire by withdrawing Russia from the orbit of Chinese influence.

It was during the time of the previous US President Barack Obama that relations between Russia and the West deteriorated so much that Moscow was forced to turn toward Beijing and became China’s most important economic and political partner. This circumstance allowed the Celestial Empire to expand seriously its influence in Asia and even on the African continent, as Russia no longer presented a threat to China in the Far East. Now Washington is thinking about how useful it would be for the United States to tear Russia away from China again.

The analyst Brandon Weichert believes that the actions of Russia in the Far East are more in line with its interests than engaging in Middle East conflicts with their complex political and confessional rhetoric. According to Weichert, it would have been far more expedient for Russia to cooperate with the United States and Israel fighting alongside them against religious extremists and terrorists.

Meanwhile, for Russia itself, cooperation with China is very important now. Russia has a huge land border with China; Beijing is an important buyer of Russian raw materials, primarily hydrocarbons. Therefore, Trump’s plan to quarrel Russia with its eastern neighbor will ultimately be beneficial only to the United States.

In addition, the US-Russia alliance against China is possible for one more reason: the Russians have always been suspicious of China; these countries are natural rivals for domination in Eurasia. History of the Celestial Empire was accompanied by countless wars and skirmishes in the borderlands, the last of which occurred in 1969. The Chinese believe that the vast part of the Russian territories belongs to them; the Chinese call the lands that the Russians call Siberia, the Upper Manchuria.

It is possible and desirable for the United States to enlist Russia’s support in China’s containment policy, and if such a cordon is not built and Russia slides into the orbit of Chinese interests, then such a scenario will be extremely bad for the United States. The prospect of uniting Eurasia under the banner of anti-Americanism is frankly frightening.