Brazil, India and China like to seize the vacuum created by sanctions in Russian trade. They will continue to support Putin’s power, writes ‘s foreign journalist Mika Mäkeläinen.
Finland and other European countries are doing everything they can to help Ukraine, which Russia is now destroying for no good reason.
That is the price that Europe thinks is worth paying for for purely selfish reasons to the Russian president Vladimir Putin it is not possible to redraw the borders of European countries. Putin’s conquests must therefore be stopped.
It is also the price that Europe wants to pay, because the EU thinks it is morally right to punish the attacker, Russia.
However, let’s still take a look Behind Europe’s exceptionally direct line of sanctions.
It’s pretty empty there.
The world’s major emerging economies do not want to subsidize Russia because they do not want to cut their gaps with Russia. On the contrary, they want to continue doing business with Russia as before.
Sorry but Ukraine, but money matters when the threat is not quite next door.
Nor will emerging economies become guardians of morality if democracy does not flourish in its own country.
Let’s start the tour from the west, Brazil.
President Jair Bolsonaro even visited Moscow in mid-February, despite calls from the United States to skip the visit.
Even after the start of the war, Bolsonaro has refused to condemn the Russian attack.
Bolsonaro did not hide the reason for Moscow’s flattery. He said irritating Russia could become a problem because Brazil’s agriculture is dependent on fertilizers imported from Russia.
Bolsonaro believes Putin could not be guilty of any large-scale bloodshed. As a surety, Bolsonaro barked at the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky comedian.
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has dared to call the President of Ukraine, but he did not promise support.
Instead, Modi would be willing to offer mediation for possible talks between Russia and Ukraine. He also called for an end to the violence, without commenting on which one started the war.
Most of Russia’s trading partners the largest is China, with which there are dependencies in both directions.
Sovereignty is an important principle for China because it does not want the West to intervene in its own flagrant human rights violations – which, on the other hand, the West has not even wanted to address seriously so as not to jeopardize trade relations.
Putin waited for the Beijing Winter Olympics to end before the attack began. The Guardian (going to another service) supplier Patrick Wintourin however, Russia did not discuss or negotiate the attack with China in advance.
So Brazil, India and China will not condemn Russia, but prefer to seize the vacuum created by sanctions in Russian trade. At the same time, they are supporting Putin’s power.
Probably them too trying to get around (switching to another service) economic sanctions on international payments: there are alternatives to the SWIFT payment system, the dollar will be replaced by the Chinese currency, the yuan, and Western banks will be replaced by local ones.
That is why Moscow is smiling with satisfaction.
Not all counter-sanctions against Russia are yet known, but at least these countries are not subject to counter-sanctions. Even if it were unnecessary to look for Finnish delicacies on the shelves of a Moscow supermarket in the future, there would be enough Brazilian tenderloin there.
This analysis is the sixth in a series that News continues during the Russian invasion. We publish a brief but in-depth and context-sensitive analysis every day at about 12 noon.
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