This is bizarre. The recent two summits (APEC and G20) have, I would argue, ended up as a disaster for the US and its allies (see here, here and here) while Russia, China and the rest of the BRICS are clearly in control of the situation, yet there are still those who believe the western corporate media which wants to portray Putin are Russia as "weak".
I suppose in our age of virtual reality perceptions are everything, and in this case such perceptions are clearly molded by exposure to the western corporate media whose brainwashing skills are nothing short of amazing. But let's look at the facts.
The single biggest development which came out of these two summits is that Xi Jinping has clearly and, for the first time, openly shown that he fully support Putin and Russia.
I remember how earlier this year there were many who were doubting China's policies towards Russia, many were saying that the "Walmart-effect" (the magnitude US-China economic ties) would never allow China to side with Russia against the US and yet this is exactly what has happened on at least three levels:
1. Economic: not only have Russia and China have signed what can only be called mega-contracts, but the Chinese were more than happy to offer Russian banks (under US/EU sanctions) access to Chinese credits. China is also helping Russia to replace SWIFT.
2. Political: if anything, the Chinese went out of their way to show that not only was Russia not isolated, but that Putin was the guest of honor at the APEC - thereby openly defying the US/EU.
3. Military: Russia and China are now engaged in regular large size joint military exercises including naval and ground operations. Not only are these two training together, they are regularly practicing the creation of joint staffs.
This really should not have come as a surprise to anybody: Russia and China are truly *ideal* partners, and they perfectly complement to each other. What one needs, the other has, and vice-versa. Not only that, but both have been - and still are - bullied by the USA so much that I would argue that the Empire is literally pushing them into each other's hands. Obama has repeatedly and openly threatened both Russia and China, send them all sorts of ultimatums, tried to assemble coalitions against them and, of course, surrounded both with military bases and US anti-missile systems.
What Obama and his advisors have failed to realize is this: Russia and China (backed by the BRICS, SCO, CSTO, EEU) are far more powerful than the US/EU block in political, economic and military terms. This is the big news, the major strategic development, the geopolitical tectonic shift, which the Empire's corporate media is trying so hard to obfuscate. As for western leaders, they are simply delusional and they have manifestly fallen into the old trap of believing their own propaganda. But, as the expression goes, "when your head is in the sand, your butt is in the air" and reality has now reasserted itself with a very powerful and painful bite.
The most ridiculous moment of last week's summit came when Obama, after having failed to achieve any of his objectives against Russia or China, made a speech where he seriously spoke of the importance of "American leadership". It was comical to the point of being embarrassing. On Russian TV the commentators where literally laughing when reporting this.
As for Putin, obviously sure of his position, he openly poked fun at the idiocy of the US/EU leaders: "Have they thought about what they are doing at all or not? Or has
politics blinded them? As we know eyes constitute a peripheral part of
brain. Was something switched off in their brains?". Combined with now an open warning that Russia would not allow the US/EU to crush the Novorussian resistance, Putin's message is blunt and clear: western leaders are driving their empire into a wall. [If you have not done so already, I urge you to carefully parse Putin's recent interview with ARD].
The AngloZionist Empire has truly become an "Empire of Illusions" (to use Chris Hedges expression) where facts matter much less than spin, where the normal way to cope with a challenge is to deny its existence, were self-deception is a way of life.
The writing is on the wall. It has been there for a long while.
The problem is that nobody wants to read it.
The Saker