Podcast “Learned something again”: Not the whole world is against Putin

Russia has been hit with sanctions over the war of aggression in Ukraine. However, Putin is not completely isolated. The Russian President is receiving worldwide support. Many countries are dependent on Russian arms supplies.

Since Russia attacked Ukraine two weeks ago, President Vladimir Putin has become an internationally ostracized figure. “With every day, with every bomb, Putin distances himself more from the circle of the world community.” This is how Chancellor Olaf Scholz put it at his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. Many states have decided on sanctions against Russia. In what is now the fourth package of sanctions, the EU member states are banning investments in the Russian energy sector and transactions with state-owned companies, among other things.

But there are also countries that continue to stand by Russia despite the war of aggression. The UN General Assembly made this clear at the beginning of the month. 141 states voted for a resolution. They call on Moscow to “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all military forces from Ukrainian territory within its internationally recognized borders”.

However, 193 states are part of the United Nations. 35 abstained, including China. Five states voted against the resolution. Russia, of course, as well as Belarus, Syria, Eritrea and North Korea. Some of the countries do not have voting rights at the moment due to outstanding payments, such as Venezuela.

Putin hires Syrian fighters

Belarus is economically and politically completely dependent on Russia. The country is Russia’s closest ally. This is now also becoming clear in the Ukraine war. Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has allowed Moscow to deploy soldiers in his country who will attack Ukraine from there, including with fighter jets and rockets. Lukashenko denies that Belarus is planning to intervene in the war.

Syria also has close ties with Russia. Moscow’s troops have helped dictator Bashar al-Assad stay in power. Thanks to the help of Russia and Iran, supporters of the Syrian president now control around two-thirds of the country again. And Putin is Assad’s most important partner in the Syrian civil war and has been supporting the ruler militarily for years. Russia intervened in the Syrian war in 2015 and bombed the country. Experts say he may have the land as a kind Experimental laboratory used to test Russian weapons systems and strategies.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Putin also wants to use Syrian fighters in the Ukraine war. Zelenskyy accused Russia of hiring “Syrian killers” to “destroy” Ukraine. Assad does not condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine, he even defends the war. “What is happening today is a correction of history and a restoration of balance in the world,” Assad was quoted as saying by the Syrian state news agency Sana. Assad has also already recognized the independence of the two regions in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Even the Soviets helped North Korea

North Korea also voted against the UN resolution. Russia is one of the few states that are friendly to North Korea, does not find the missile tests problematic, for example, and rejects international sanctions against the Kim regime. There have been close ties since the Cold War. The Soviet Union provided North Korea with economic and military support and helped build its nuclear program. Pyongyang hopes for more economic cooperation with Moscow in order to become more independent from China.

It could be similar for Eritrea. Conditions are brutal in the country, which is often referred to as the “North Korea of ​​Africa”. The isolated African state has repeatedly struggled with Western sanctions. The regime has been trying to cooperate with Russia for some time. Eritrea is strategically interesting for Moscow due to its location on the Red Sea. Throughout Africa, Russia is trying to expand its influence.

Russia’s relations extend to Latin America. Venezuela recently signed a military agreement with Russia and is one of the largest buyers of Russian arms. The country has condemned the sanctions against Russia. But the South American state did not vote because it did not pay its dues and therefore lost its voting rights at the United Nations.

Russian arms in Nicaragua and Cuba

Nicaragua and Cuba also abstained from voting in the UN General Assembly. Nevertheless, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega sees it as Russia simply defending itself. He was one of the first rulers in the world to speak positively about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Good relations between Russia and Nicaragua date back to the 1980s. At that time, rebels had waged a guerrilla war against the left-wing government of Nicaragua. Nicaragua received arms and ammunition from the Soviet Union. To this day, Nicaragua is also economically – just like Cuba – closely linked to Russia. Both countries are supplied with military equipment and have large debts in Moscow.

Cuba was only able to survive the US embargo that had been in place since the 1960s with the support of the Soviet Union and later Russia. Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel sees Russia as a victim, and the economic, trade and financial sanctions imposed by western states would not solve the “crisis”.

India also abstained from the vote in the UN General Assembly – and before that from the resolution in the UN Security Council against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So far, the country has emphasized its neutrality. But actually it has been a close partner of Russia for decades. Moscow has been supplying arms to India for a long time. New Delhi wants to prevent Russia from getting closer to China and also needs Moscow in the border conflict with China in the Himalayas.

Putin can be sure of China’s friendship

It’s similar in China. Beijing also abstained from the UN vote and has so far avoided criticizing Russia for attacking Ukraine. China has been a close partner of Russia for several hundred years. China is Moscow’s most important export country, supplying oil, gas and coal, among other things. However, Beijing also does not want to jeopardize its relationship with the West. At the latest at the meeting of the People’s Congress last week, it became clear that China stands by Putin despite the war. According to US media, Russia is said to have asked China for military and economic help because of the Ukraine war, which both countries reject.

“China had Russia’s back shortly before the Olympic Games. That was the condition for Russia to be able to mobilize all its forces in the West. That it was agreed with China that they wanted to pull together here. And then China remained the one Over time actually firmly on Russia’s side. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less,” analyzes political scientist Thomas Jäger on ntv.

Although Russia has supporters all over the world, these friendships are apparently of little use to Putin at the moment. The country is sliding deeper and deeper into an economic crisis as a result of the sanctions. So far, Russia has hardly been able to benefit from its partners on the world stage. Not only politically, but also economically, Putin could soon plunge his country into almost complete isolation.