A while back we wrote about the colossal diplomatic blunder Moscow was making when they thought that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization would be the ideal venue for them to drum up support for separatism and annexation in the Caucasus (having ignored a couple hundred years of Chinese history). Now it looks like Asia, led by Beijing, is pumping money into Tbilisi. Yes, that's about the exact opposite outcome the Kremlin was looking for...
From the IHT:
The Asian Development Bank, in which China plays a leading role, has extended a $40 million loan at the lowest possible rate to Georgia. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization - which includes China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as well as Russia - refused to countenance Russia's recognition of two breakaway regions of Georgia. The rebuff of Putin is all the more striking because - at least from Putin's perspective - the central purpose of this group was to form an eastern counterweight to NATO.China and the Central Asian states may share the Kremlin's resentment of American dominance in the world, but they are not so eager to construct a multipolar world that they will act against their national interests.
It's completely crazy for Russians to imagine that China is some sort of ally. The two countries will inevitably, as China's population and power continue to grow, come to blows over Siberian territory. The Chinese know only too well the racial contempt Russians have for all non-Slavic peoples, and for all they know Russia will soon start trying to annex portions of their own country. The fact that Russians can be so deluded as to imagine that China is an ally only goes to prove how utterly isolated and ignorant, due to the lack of median and opposition voices, the KGB trolls who run the country really are.
The only quesiton is, will the craven people of Russia ever call their government to account for all this failure?