{"id":7869,"date":"2022-05-17T21:34:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T21:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7869"},"modified":"2022-05-17T21:34:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T21:34:01","slug":"was-russias-decision-to-cut-off-natural-gas-exports-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7869","title":{"rendered":"Was Russia\u2019s decision to cut off natural gas exports a mistake?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Despite Western powers\u2019 broad condemnation of and efforts to isolate Russia, the country has managed to maintain ties and partnerships elsewhere around the world. In April, the UN General Assembly voted on a resolution to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council over its invasion of Ukraine. The resolution succeeded after it\u00a0received<\/a>\u00a0a two-thirds majority of votes from member states with 93 nations voting in favor of Russia\u2019s suspension from the body. But 24 of the body\u2019s members voted against the action while 58 members abstained from the vote altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u00a0Results of the UN vote signify the complexities of real-world diplomacy even in the face of war. Countries in Africa, South America, and Asia have increasingly sought to resist taking sides as the Russia-Ukraine war threatens to shape the world into political factions. But the West\u2019s waning influence in other parts of the globe, combined with economic and political interests at stake, has resulted in many nations\u00a0opting to maintain their independence<\/a>\u00a0when it comes to relations with Russia.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Asia, where growing vigilance over China\u2019s increasing influence is shared across borders, nations in the southeast and the south of the continent have expressed<\/a> their intentions to remain on good terms with Russia in spite of the situation with Ukraine. Among Russia\u2019s most loyal partners is India, with whom it has maintained a strong relationship since the Soviet Union\u2019s backing of India during the 1971 war with Pakistan, even as India remained officially non-aligned during the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor behind their continued friendship is India\u2019s reliance<\/a> on Russia as a military arms supplier \u2014 from the 1950s to now the country has received an estimated 65 percent<\/a> of firearms exports from the Soviet Union or Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. India\u2019s border disputes in the Himalayas with China, which triggered a bloody clash<\/a> in 2020, is another motivating factor for India as Russia has functioned as an important mediator in the conflict with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China, another key Russian partner, has refrained from condemning Russia outright, instead asking for the warring countries to reach a peaceful resolution. In a March virtual meeting with France and Germany, President Xi Jinping called<\/a> for \u201cmaximum restraint\u201d on the issue and expressed concerns over the broader impact of sanctions on Russia. But some, like Herrera, doubt how far China will continue to toe the line if the situation worsens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChina has not said they would not abide by the sanctions and they are so far going along with the sanctions against Russia,\u201d Herrera said. A potential turning point, she said, could be Europe\u2019s next sanctions, particularly any secondary sanctions it puts out, which will be \u201ca big crossroads for China to decide whether to participate with those.\u201dBut its ties with Russia could still end up serving China economically. President Vladimir Putin has\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0Russia will \u201credirect\u201d its energy exports to \u201crapidly growing markets\u201d elsewhere to help buttress against sanctions, perhaps an effort to maintain support from its key ally.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0
https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2022\/5\/1\/23051868\/russias-natural-gas-exports-india-china-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Despite Western powers\u2019 broad condemnation of and efforts to isolate Russia, the country has managed to maintain ties and partnerships elsewhere around the world. In April, the UN General Assembly voted on a resolution to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council over its invasion of Ukraine. The resolution succeeded after it received a two-thirds majority of votes from member states with 93 nations voting in favor of Russia\u2019s suspension from the body. But 24 of the body\u2019s members voted against the action while 58 members abstained from the vote altogether.<\/p>\n

Results of the UN vote signify the complexities of real-world diplomacy even in the face of war. Countries in Africa, South America, and Asia have increasingly sought to resist taking sides as the Russia-Ukraine war threatens to shape the world into political factions. But the West\u2019s waning influence in other parts of the globe, combined with economic and political interests at stake, has resulted in many nations opting to maintain their independence when it comes to relations with Russia.<\/p>\n

In Asia, where growing vigilance over China\u2019s increasing influence is shared across borders, nations in the southeast and the south of the continent have expressed their intentions to remain on good terms with Russia in spite of the situation with Ukraine. Among Russia\u2019s most loyal partners is India, with whom it has maintained a strong relationship since the Soviet Union\u2019s backing of India during the 1971 war with Pakistan, even as India remained officially non-aligned during the Cold War.<\/p>\n

Another factor behind their continued friendship is India\u2019s reliance on Russia as a military arms supplier \u2014 from the 1950s to now the country has received an estimated 65 percent of firearms exports from the Soviet Union or Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. India\u2019s border disputes in the Himalayas with China, which triggered a bloody clash in 2020, is another motivating factor for India as Russia has functioned as an important mediator in the conflict with China.<\/p>\n

China, another key Russian partner, has refrained from condemning Russia outright, instead asking for the warring countries to reach a peaceful resolution. In a March virtual meeting with France and Germany, President Xi Jinping called for \u201cmaximum restraint\u201d on the issue and expressed concerns over the broader impact of sanctions on Russia. But some, like Herrera, doubt how far China will continue to toe the line if the situation worsens.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina has not said they would not abide by the sanctions and they are so far going along with the sanctions against Russia,\u201d Herrera said. A potential turning point, she said, could be Europe\u2019s next sanctions, particularly any secondary sanctions it puts out, which will be \u201ca big crossroads for China to decide whether to participate with those.\u201d<\/p>\n

But its ties with Russia could still end up serving China economically. President Vladimir Putin has stated Russia will \u201credirect\u201d its energy exports to \u201crapidly growing markets\u201d elsewhere to help buttress against sanctions, perhaps an effort to maintain support from its key ally.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[552,924,217,165,728,1218,1545,1234,315,226,227,311,158],"class_list":["post-7869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-conflict","tag-eastern-europe","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-europe","tag-gas","tag-invasion","tag-natural-gas","tag-russia","tag-trade","tag-trade-war","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7870,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions\/7870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}