China- Russia

Click here for much good discussion on the new alliances betweeen China and Russia. One of the saddest things, mentioned somewhere in the comments, is that Russia will probably suffer for it. China-- my Kazakh friends call her "The Dragon"-- is a dangerous "ally", and swamps the countries on its edges, especially Asian Siberia, with cheap goods and immigrants, legal and illegal. Putin would doubtless do better making durable connections to the US, but his authoritarian style and the distrust of many elements in his government and military of all things western-- a distrust that predates the Russian revolution-- may preclude this. It may also cost him eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, and all their riches, in a generation.