China may be making the best of Russia's struggling war against Ukraine backed by the West. Russia now has a two-front war. Russia should pray it doesn't get a third front. And Putin should pray Russians don't notice.
Following over two decades of negotiations, the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan ratified a trilateral agreement with China and Uzbekistan on the joint construction of the CKU railway, Russian language media outlet BigAsia.Ru reported on Wednesday. The deal was signed between the countries on June 6, and construction is expected to start in October. ...
The railway is expected to cut the route from China to Europe by 560 miles, shortening transit times for freight by an estimated eight days, and significantly, avoiding Russia and its Trans-Siberian Railway, the International Railway Journal (ICJ) reported.
Is Russia's military faceplant in Ukraine practically giving its former territory in Central Asia to China?
So if Russia-Chinese relations get tense, Russia can't threaten to cut China off from Europe overland.
What the heck, eh? China seemingly expected Putin to get a short and glorious war back in February 2022. Which would have made Putin insufferable and perhaps confident enough to cease appeasing China to safeguard its Far East conquests ripped from China in the 19th century.
But now Russia is just a sad compliant vassal desperate for China to help Russia sustain its war of aggression and desperate for China not to pounce on the wheezing Russia. For now, China will pounce on the corpse of the USSR.
What comes next? And what will China reap from that?
As Russians look at the wreckage of Putin's drive for glory, will Putin be strung up by his heels from a lamp post in Moscow before or after that sad end to Russia as an Asian power?
UPDATE: One day this may be about the Moon. But right now it is about Central Asia:
Kazakhstan has signed a memorandum on cooperation on the China-led ILRS and will also explore commercial use of each other’s spaceports. ...
A memorandum on cooperation as part of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) was one of the 30 signed documents, according to the Interfax news agency.
Tip to Instapundit.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.
