Despite Putin’s Hopes, Beijing Opens a Railway to Germany Bypassing Russia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 6 – Vladimir Putin has placed great hopes in China as Russia’s last remaining allies among the major powers, but Beijing has already established a record of failing to back Moscow in practical ways even as it continues to speak out politically in Russia’s favor (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/05/beijing-backing-moscow-politically-but.html).

            Now, Beijing’s failure to provide practical support to Moscow has risen to a new level. China has opened a railway route to Germany which bypasses Russia by going through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (casp-geo.ru/o-zapuske-kitaem-zheleznodorozhnogo-marshruta-v-germaniyu-v-obhod-rossii/).

            Chinese firms are interested in such a route in order to avoid falling under sanctions, but Russian observers, cited by Casp-Geo, argue that what China has done may not matter as much as it appears. The capacity of the new route is small compared to that of Russian routes, they say; and no one can predict how long the current standoff between Russia and the West will last.