Russian strongman Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing, China, on Tuesday to attend the “Belt and Road Forum,” an event to promote communist China’s debt-trap scheme to increase its influence abroad and erode the sovereignty of vulnerable nations.
The trip is Putin’s first outside of the former Soviet states since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March on the grounds that he had commanded the Russian army to invade Ukraine and commit atrocities against civilians.
Putin considered a visit to South Africa in August for the BRICS summit there – uniting the members of that coalition, Russia, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa – but ultimately decided against it to avoid placing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the compromising position of having to choose whether or not to detain him.
China is not a signatory to the ICC and so has no obligation to arrest Putin.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that Putin is scheduled to meet with Xi on Wednesday.
“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, he will attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and related events. The two heads of state will also hold a meeting to have in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
In the evening (local Beijing time), Putin attended a banquet for Belt and Road Forum guests, walking the red carpet into the event surrounded by cameras and flanked by Chinese soldiers.
The Moscow Times reported that Putin arrived with a large delegation of economic and trade officials.
“Among them are the deputy prime ministers for energy and technology, the finance minister, the head of the Central Bank, the powerful heads of the Gazprom and Rosneft energy giants, and the head of Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank,” the newspaper listed.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), for which the event is named, offers predatory loans to developing and poor countries intended to be used to build roads, ports, railways, and other infrastructure projects. The money often goes to Chinese contractors, meaning China profits from the loan itself and the subsequent interest on the loan. If a country faces difficulties paying back the loan, China seizes the projects or otherwise expands its footprint there. Among the nations most negatively impacted by the BRI are Sri Lanka, which lost control of its critical Hambantota port to China for almost 200 years, and Kenya, where Chinese companies have established racist “apartheid” systems abusing local workers.
Russia is an enthusiastic supporter of the BRI. The South China Morning Post noted on Tuesday that Putin also attended the past two iterations of the Belt and Road Forum in 2017 and 2019. The Chinese government is touting this week’s event as the most important Belt and Road Forum yet, however, as it marks the tenth anniversary of the BRI. China’s state-owned Global Times newspaper claimed, citing the Communist Party, that “representatives from more than 140 countries and over 30 international organizations” will attend this Belt and Road Forum, in part as a result of the fact that China “signed more than 200 BRI cooperation agreements with more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations across five continents” in the last decade.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping interacting during a welcoming ceremony at the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. (SERGEI SAVOSTYANOV/POOL/AFP via Getty)
In addition to Putin, the guest list includes the presidents of Kenya, Chile, Serbia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Republic of the Congo, as well as the prime ministers of Cambodia, Hungary, and Ethiopia, among others. A large number of the heads of government in attendance are of socialist or communist parties; the major exception of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, a vocal supporter of the Chinese Communist Party who presents himself as a hardline anti-communist at home.
This year, Putin is expected to use his participation in the Forum not only to support fellow dictator Xi Jinping, but meet with Chinese business leaders, other foreign heads of state, and relevant economic actors to expand investment in Russia and discuss trade deals that could aid in the expansion of Russia’s fossil fuel industry. Multiple reports this week cited one project in particular, the “Power of Siberia-2” gas pipeline that would connect Russia to China through Mongolia, as of utmost importance for Putin.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meeting with Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh on the sidelines of the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17, 2023. ( SERGEI GUNEYEV/POOL/AFP via Getty)
“Russian officials have in recent months met with their counterparts from China and Mongolia – where the pipeline is intended to traverse – with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak announcing in September that Power of Siberia-2’s route is to be finalized after the trilateral negotiations,” Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.
Putin himself told the Russian outlet RIA Novosti on Monday that he expects Russian trade volume with China to surpass $200 billion by the end of 2023. At the end of last year, trade volume stood at a record $190.3 billion, the outlet noted.
“I have no doubt about that. I’ll carefully say – almost certainly,” Putin said. “Over the previous period, our turnover growth amounted to 32 percent. This is a very good growth. And at the end of the year, there is every reason to believe that we will reach the bar of 200 billion.”
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