Russia and China are Teaming Up

🇨🇳🤝🇷🇺 Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing on Friday. In a joint statement, the two countries announced a partnership to collaborate more against the West, vowing to work together on space travel, climate change, AI, control of the internet, and more.

• Beijing committed to supporting Russia's demand that Ukraine shouldn’t be admitted into NATO, as the Kremlin gathers 100,000+ troops at its neighbor’s border. For its part, Moscow agreed to oppose any form of independence for Taiwan.
• The partnership marks China’s strongest show of support for Russia to date in its dispute with Ukraine. Still, the deal “falls short of the full-fledged treaty alliances that the US enjoys with Europe, Japan, Australia and others,” per the WSJ.
• The Biden administration on Thursday accused Putin of ordering covert operatives to create a “very graphic” fake propaganda video depicting an attack that Russia could use as a pretext to invade Ukraine.
• Two US officials on Saturday said Russia has deployed ~70% of the forces it would need for a full-scale invasion. They also estimated that peak weather conditions for an invasion would begin around February 15 and last until the end of March.

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