Since "the West pushes Russia into China& #39;s arms" is quite popular myth among some Western politicians and pundits, it is worth to remind few things: THREAD 1/7 https://twitter.com/AntoineBondaz/status/1319665977760632833?s=20">https://twitter.com/AntoineBo...

1. Russia wasn& #39;t "pushed out from Europe". It was given financial-economic support in 90s, admitted to the Council of Europe (in 1996 despite its deficits), offered priviledged partnership w/ NATO (since 1995, enhanced in 1999 & 2002) and w/ the EU (since 2000, enhanced 2005).

2. It was Putin& #39;s decision to take authoritarian non-European path of Russia& #39;s development (esp since 2004), to refuse participation in EU& #39;s Neighbourhood Policy, to decline WTO+ free trade agreement and to start aggressive policy towards individual European states (since 2007).

3. Despite some hopes and EU& #39;s & #39;Partnership for Modernization& #39; programme (2009), during the "Medvedev thaw" (till end 2011) no serious progress has been accomplished in "legal approximation".Putin& #39;s concept of GreaterEurope was in fact meant to divide the continent into 2 blocks.

4. In the meantime Russia-China relations has been developing since 1992. Security cooperation started in 1996 & closer military cooperation in 2005,further enhanced in 2012 (before the current serious crisis in Russian-Western relations started in the wake of https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇷🇺" title="Flagge von Russland" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Russland">-https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇺🇦" title="Flagge der Ukraine" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge der Ukraine"> war of 2014).

5. Current level of China-Russia cooperation (also military) is close to de facto alliance, which is based on authoritarianism (anti-Liberalism) & anti-Westernism (esp against the U.S.). It is not (and won& #39;t be) formalised b/c China doesn& #39;t need that, willing to retain free hand.

6. In that context Putin& #39;s Valdai remarks on China is his standard message for Western elites: do not react for Russia& #39;s aggressive policies w/deterrence/containment or we become even closer to China. Putin uses such threats because he knows they resonate well w/ some Westerners.

7.Peculiar Putin& #39;s outlook & definition of Russian interests (in fact largely limited to the paramount goal of regime survival) makes impossible for Europe (or broader West) to influence https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇷🇺" title="Flagge von Russland" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Russland">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇨🇳" title="Flagge von China" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von China"> relations & decouple Russia fr China. Attempts to do that will benefit the Kremlin only.