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The Ukrainian crisis is getting hotter, Putin chooses to fly to China for the opening of the Olympics. PHOTO/Reuters
Putin’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday will mark their first face-to-face meeting since 2019. The meeting is meant to help strengthen Moscow’s relations with Beijing and coordinate their policies in the face of Western pressure.
Read: Send New Year’s Message to Xi, Putin Makes Olympic Predictions
As the AP reports, after the bilateral meeting, the two will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. In an article published by the Xinhua news agency, Putin wrote that Moscow and Beijing play an “important stabilizing role” in global affairs and help make international affairs “more fair and inclusive.”
Putin also criticized attempts by some countries to politicize sport in the interests of their ambitions. “We oppose attempts to politicize sport or use it as a tool of coercion, unfair competition and discrimination,” Putin said in an interview with China Media Group.
Previously, the United States and a number of its allies decided to carry out a political boycott of the Beijing Olympics and would not send representatives at the opening ceremony, but instead sent a contingent of athletes to compete.
Read: Taiwan Will Not Send Delegation to Beijing 2022 Olympics Opening
Many Western officials have decided not to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics in protest at China’s detention of more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. But the leaders of ex-Soviet Central Asian countries, with close ties to Russia and China, have all followed Putin’s lead and presence.
“Putin’s meeting with Xi and attendance at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics announces the further promotion of China-Russia relations,” said Li Xin, director of the Institute of European and Asian Studies at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.
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