The United States’ policy of international bullying has created a lot of enemies for itself, and in the process, a lot of potential friends for Russia. The most obvious example of this is the relationship between China and Russia. The US has acted aggressively towards both of them, strengthening the friendship and cooperation between the two countries in the process.
In Korea, more than 70 years of aggressive sanctions, blockades and saber-rattling by the West meant that right when Russia could use another ally, there was a militarized nuclear power in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) willing and waiting to stand by Russia against the West. Earlier this week, the two countries signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that security and international relations expert Mark Sleboda described as a “military alliance.”
On Wednesday, Putin visited Vietnam where, despite somewhat warm relations with the West in recent decades, wounds from the Vietnam War have not healed completely. In an official statement, Vietnam thanked Russia for supporting their struggle for independence against the West.
Putin doesn’t have to be physically present in an area for his shadow to loom large over it. Last week, a Russian flotilla arrived in Cuba and is currently on its way to Venezuela. While the visit is an annual event, this time the Flotilla included nuclear-capable ships and submarines, a clear message to the West not only from Russia but also Cuba, which sits just 90 miles from the US most southern point.
Cuba, of course, has been subject to strict economic sanctions from the US since 1962 and Venezuela has been the subject of numerous coup attempts from the United States, most recently in 2019. Is it any wonder why these countries would let Russia utilize them to stick their thumb in the eye of the US?
“The big message here is that in response to these strategic partnerships with Ukraine and the US striking with missiles inside Russia with the thinly removed proxy of the Kiev regime in Ukraine,” argued Sleboda on The Final Countdown. “Russia is going back into full-on conflict mode with the United States and is resurrecting all of its Cold War allies. And I think we can expect more.”
Then there is Africa, a continent that has long struggled under colonialism and neo-colonialism from the West. In recent years, multiple countries in the Sahel have kicked out their neo-colonial overlords and in many cases asked Russia to provide security for their burgeoning governments.
Of course, the US and the West are corralling all the allies they can for what they see as an inevitable conflict with Russia and/or China. They have been working to maintain the influence they still have in Africa. NATO expansion has continued, bulwarked only by Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.
The US and UK have been working to strengthen the AUKUS bloc, increase cooperation with Japan and South Korea and sell nuclear submarines to Australia. But those are largely pre-existing partnerships or expansions of partnerships with countries the US is already friendly with. When it comes to neutral countries, Russia simply has to welcome them with open arms to contrast itself with the bullying of the United States.
At the so-called “Peace Conference” for Ukraine in Switzerland last week, a record 13 of the participating countries declined to sign onto the document, including the US’ neighbor Mexico.
Mexico’s government, currently headed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has faced increasingly aggressive rhetoric from politicians in the US, including threats of invasion ostensibly to fight the cartels.
The other 12 countries who declined to sign the event’s final proclamation came from Africa, South America and Asia. Two additional countries: Iraq and Jordan, later removed their signatures.
Finally, there is BRICS, once derived as a pipedream by observers in the West, it is now a global force, and recently surpassed the collective economic might of the Group of Seven (G7). More countries are asking to join BRICS+ regularly, a trend no doubt accelerated by the US insistence on weaponizing the economic position it was granted in the Bretton Woods agreement.
“I think what the US needs to do is to expand their axis of evil beyond three countries, because while we've got a rotating membership of it, it doesn't seem to be quite large enough now. Like, is Iran going to get bumped by North Korea now?” Joked Sleboda. “The US has created far too many enemies in the world to be restricted to just three these days,” he added, suggesting that the US use the moniker the “Legion of Doom.”