Is the Axis of Authoritarians crumbling? Or is it a case study of how the new “might makes right” world order works?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been unusually quiet.
He had long considered Venezuela to be a client state. Yet the United States “snatch and grab” operation against President Nicolás Maduro was met with little more than a perfunctory diplomatic performance.
It’s the same story for Syria. After years of Russian military, economic and diplomatic support, dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime was allowed to collapse. He’s now in exile in Moscow with his family.
Iran is something more.
Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei’s regime is considered one of the four pillars of the “Axis of Authoritarians”.
This economic, political and diplomatic affiliation between Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran has been co-ordinating disruption efforts on the “rules based order” guiding global affairs since World War II.
But Putin has done little more than issue a terse statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been unusually quiet. Picture: Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP
Neither Venezuela nor Iran was even on his agenda for his first Kremlin governmental meeting of the new year. And that’s odd for a regime that has boasted that these same relationships cement its position on the world stage.
It’s a similar story for Chairman Xi Jinping.
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