Day: October 22, 2023

Published: 20:04 BST, 21 October 2023 | Updated: 03:37 BST, 22 October 2023

Published: 20:09 BST, 21 October 2023 | Updated: 04:53 BST, 22 October 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a highly anticipated meeting on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum of International Cooperation on Wednesday, hailing their close relationship while celebrating the deepening political and economic ties between China and Russia.

“The political mutual trust between the two countries is continuously deepening,” Xi said, praising “the close and effective strategic coordination” that the two countries have maintained.

Some analysts say the meeting allows Xi to present China as an alternative world leader to developing countries and gives Putin a chance to prove that he is still relevant internationally.

“This meeting will champion Xi’s position [that China is] as an alternative world leader to the Global South and allow Putin to show that he has a very powerful friend [in Xi,]” Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told VOA in a written response.

The visit to China marks Putin’s second trip outside Russia since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader in March. Earlier this month, Putin visited Kyrgyzstan for a summit of former Soviet republics. Both China and Kyrgyzstan are not members of the ICC.

It also comes amid the escalating military conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. While China and Russia have condemned Israel’s airstrikes against Gaza and called for a cease-fire, Xi and Putin didn’t publicly address the issue.

In the official readout released by the Xinhua news agency, Xi called for joint efforts between Beijing and Moscow to “safeguard international fairness and justice.”

Some experts say Xi and Putin’s reluctance to comment on the Israel-Hamas conflict during their meeting shows both countries’ attempt to balance their relationship with the Middle East and Israel. “They haven’t fully backed Israel but neither have they been strong in terms of supporting Hamas,” said Philipp Ivanov, a senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI).

He adds that China and Russia both understand their limited ability to help solve the longstanding conflict between Israel and Hamas, so instead of directly getting involved in the peace process, Ivanov thinks Moscow and Beijing might use their leverage to ensure the conflict doesn’t “spill into a wider war.”

“I think China and Russia could use their leverage with Syria, Iran, or Saudi Arabia to try to contain the conflict,” he told VOA in a video call.

Deepening bilateral exchanges

Putin’s visit to Beijing also reflects Russia’s growing reliance on China as Moscow faces mounting international sanctions due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Since Russia has become ever-more isolated internationally, China has become an important market for Russian goods and an important buyer of Russian oil and gas, providing a crucial financial lifeline to Moscow’s war against Kyiv.

Chinese customs data shows that bilateral trade between China and Russia grew 36.5% for the first seven months of 2023, reaching $134.1 billion. Chinese analysts told China’s state-run tabloid Global Times that bilateral trade could reach $200 billion, surpassing last year’s record of $190 billion.

On Wednesday, Xi told Putin that bilateral trade volume between the two countries has reached “a historical high,” emphasizing that it’s “progressing toward the goal of $200 billion set by the two sides.”

Ivanov of ASPI pointed out that Moscow has become highly dependent on China for accessing critical technologies like motherboards and semiconductors, while Beijing is taking “full advantage of discounted commodity and energy prices” that Russia provides. “Amid China’s competition with the U.S., Russia is a stable and affordable energy provider,” he told VOA. “The benefits that both countries derive from this partnership go both ways.”

In addition to deepening engagement on the economic front, some observers say Xi and Putin will look to increase military and technical cooperation. “Apart from oil, gas and agricultural products, something that Russia can offer is certain military technologies that China needs as it ramps up its military modernization,” Ivanov noted.

And for Putin, one of the main goals is to further advance the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which China and Russia had agreed on some aspects of the deal during Xi and Putin’s Moscow meeting in March.

On Wednesday, Xi said China hopes the China-Mongolia-Russia natural gas pipeline project can make substantive progress “as soon as possible,” according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.

Havrén from RUSI said the war between Israel and Hamas may complicate this effort, as the war could affect global natural gas prices. “But this remains Putin’s major goals,” she told VOA.

During his address at the BRI Forum on Wednesday, Putin said the BRI fits with the new transportation infrastructure that Russia has been developing, including the Northern Sea Route, which runs from Russia’s border with Norway to the Bering Strait near Alaska, according to Russia’s state-run news agency Sputnik.

China’s balancing act

Wednesday’s meeting marks the third time that Xi and Putin have met in person since 2022. Weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, Putin visited Beijing, where the two leaders signed a 5,000-word agreement to declare their “no limits partnership.”

In March, just days after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes, Xi visited Moscow, during which he told Putin that they are driving changes that haven’t happened in 100 years.

Despite Xi and Putin’s close relationship, the two met 42 times as of Wednesday, some analysts say Beijing remains wary of the risk of aligning itself too closely with Moscow.

As the two leaders met in Beijing, lethal airstrikes in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed civilians overnight.

“I don’t think there would be a deeper, open engagement [between China and Russia] as that would further strain Beijing’s relationship with European countries,” said Havrén from RUSI.

She thinks China will try to strike a balance between its close partnership with Russia and attempts to show Western democracies that they are willing to play a neutral role on issues such as the Ukraine War. “That’s what Beijing tries to do, but it’s more or less a camouflage,” she said.

On October 18, 2023, relatives of Ukrainian Azov regiment war prisoners held a rally at St. Sophia Square in Kyiv calling for their quick exchange with Russian prisoners of war. Prisoner swaps between Ukraine and Russia are rare. While more than 2,500 Ukrainians have been released, up to 10,000 are believed to remain in Russian custody. Their fate is unknown. However, media reported that former Ukrainian captives testified that they were subjected to torture, including frequent beatings and electric shocks, while in custody at a detention facility in south-western Russia, in what would be serious violations of international humanitarian law. Earlier this year, BBC interviewed several former detainees released in prisoner exchanges who alleged physical and psychological abuse by Russian officers and guards. The abuse is said to take place in the Pre-Trial Detention Facility Number Two, in the city of Taganrog. It is one of the locations where Ukrainian prisoners of war have been held in Russia.

Relatives of Ukrainian Azov regiment war prisoners hold placards during a rally calling for their … [+] quick exchange with Russian prisoners of war at St. Sophia Square in Kyiv, on October 18, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo credit: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Reports of detainees being subjected to abuse are not new. In November 2022, the Head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, presented the results of their interviews with 159 prisoners of war (139 men and 20 women) who were held by the Russian Federation (including by affiliated armed groups). Commenting on the findings, Ms Bogner stated that “Immediately upon capture, some [Ukrainian prisoners of war] were beaten or had their personal belongings pillaged. The prisoners of war were then transported to places of internment in a manner that raised concerns. They were often taken in overcrowded trucks or buses and sometimes lacked access to water or toilets for more than a day. Their hands were tied and eyes covered so tightly with duct tape that it left wounds on their wrists and faces.” She further added that “Upon arrival at certain places of internment, prisoners of war were subjected to so-called ‘admission procedures’, which frequently involved prolonged beatings, threats, dog attacks, being stripped and put into stress positions. Witnesses told us about the death of at least one prisoner of war during an ‘admission procedure’ in the penal colony near Olenivka in mid-April 2022. We have received information about eight other such alleged deaths there in April 2022 and we are working to corroborate them.”

As Ms Bogner explained, the vast majority of those her team interviewed testified that during their internment they were tortured and ill-treated. Torture and ill-treatment are said to have been used to coerce prisoners of war to give military information or statements about alleged crimes but also to intimidate and humiliate them. Prisoners of war described being “beaten, including with batons and wooden hammers, kicked, and given electric shocks with Tasers and a military phone known as TAPik.”

A man interviewed by the the team of Ms Bogner testified on the torture he experienced in a penal colony near Olenivka, including how members of Russian-affiliated armed groups, “attached wires to [his] genitalia and nose, and shocked [him]. They simply had fun and were not interested in [his] replies to their questions.” Other forms of abuse reported by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine included “being stabbed, shot with a stun gun, threatened with mock executions, being hung by the hands or legs, and burned with cigarettes (…) various forms of sexual violence, such as pulling a male victim by a rope tied around his genitalia, or forced nudity combined with the threat of rape.”

The report produced by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine included testimonies of 20 women prisoners of war after they were released from the penal colony near Olenivka and other facilities in Donetsk, and in the Russian Federation. Their experiences varied. For example, the women released from the colony near Olenivka described being psychologically tormented by the screams of male prisoners of war being tortured in nearby cells. Women from other locations testified on having been beaten, electrocuted and threatened with sexual violence during interrogations, or being subjected to degrading treatment that amounted to sexual violence (for example by being “forced to run naked from one room to another in the presence of male guards”).

Furthermore, former prisoners reported on the dire conditions more broadly, including overcrowded cells, poor hygiene and lack of food and water. As the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine confirmed, “some of them lost up to a quarter of their body weight, and many frequently fainted in captivity.” Also, only a few of them were allowed to call or text their relatives. The Russian government has not allowed the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, or other bodies, to visit facilities used to hold prisoners of war.

Prisoners of war are protected under international humanitarian law. Among others, they must be treated humanely in all circumstances. They are protected against any act of violence, intimidation, insults, and public curiosity. International humanitarian law further defines minimum conditions of detention covering accommodation, food, clothing, hygiene and medical care that prisoners of war are to be provided with. Reports suggesting violations of these protections and minimum conditions of detentions must be taken seriously.