OfGuido Santevecchi
The Chinese leader spoke with the Russian one about the possibility of a truce during the Olympics: “But only the ancient Greeks respected it,” Putin said. Meanwhile, Kremlinologists and Beijing experts are debating the meaning of the double embrace between the two
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN BEIJING
“There Olympic truce? Yes, President Xi Jinping told me about itwe discussed this topic with him…”.
Leaving Beijing for Harbin, a northern Chinese city, Vladimir Putin responded to a journalist’s question on the topic of ceasefire in Ukraine, to be observed during the three weeks of the Paris Games. There proposal by French President Emmanuel Macron it had been at the center of discussions with Xi during his visit on May 6. And now Putin says that his Chinese friend passed it on to him. We don’t know with what emphasis, but she told him about it.
The Kremlin head noted that the principles of the Olympic truce “are very correct”, because “over the centuries they were developed by the world community”, but added that few applied it apart from the ancient Greeks. And he concluded with an inevitable jab against Westerners: «Foreign sports officials today are politicizing sport and violating the Olympic Charter themselves, in the West they violate the principles of Olympism, but they ask for respect from the Russian Federation, therefore they do not we will go far.”
Putin also spoke about the situation on the battlefield: «The Ukrainians tried to gain an advantageto reach a strategic position, but it didn’t work and now they propose their conditions. Have they gone crazy or what?».
As for the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv area, the Tsar said that the objective for now is not to take the city but to establish a “safety zone, a sanitary cordon” against Ukrainian shelling in the border area.
When asked about the possibility of a negotiatedPutin responded that Russia had not been invited to the conference in Switzerland next June and “will not allow an ultimatum to be dictated on the basis of Ukrainian proposals.”
Finally, he repeated the praise to Chinese proposal of February 2023based on 12 points that they started from a ceasefire but did not foresee a Russian withdrawal from the occupied territories: «China has a sincere desire for peace». It remains to be seen under what conditions and the 43rd summit between Putin and Xi just celebrated in Beijing gave no new indications.
Thursday evening Xi Jinping greeted his friend with a double hug, after a final conversation and tea in Zhongnanhai, the ancient imperial garden transformed into the forbidden citadel of the Chinese communist government. Lor affectionate impulse, not very common in Xi’s “body language”.was picked up by Chinese state TV and the video went viral on Mandarin social media. Western Beijing experts are debating the scene: in the past Xi hugged (or was hugged) by French President Macron, but it seems that the image had not been relaunched by the Beijing press. And then, analysts are divided on the interpretation of the embrace: we see that it is Xi who puts his big hands on Putin’s shoulders, but he did it as an “older brother”, as a majority shareholderor to show that for him his Russian colleague is a precious point of support? However, the doubt reveals how little we know about real Chinese strategic sentiment.
May 17, 2024 (changed May 17, 2024 | 2:46 pm)
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