‘Existential threat’: Russia names India as a key ally in new Cold War-style bloc with China

Vladimir Putin adopted an aggressive new Cold War-era posture declaring the west an ‘existential threat’, and naming India a top partner with China to combat the US and its allies.

Vladimir Putin released a new, Cold War-era style doctrine that threatens to divide the world between the US and the West on one side and Russia, China and India on the other.

The 42-page foreign policy strategy released by the Kremlin outlines India and China as Russia’s main allies on the world state in the face of the “existential crisis” that is the United States and its western allies, including Europe, the UK, and Australia.

The new doctrine is aimed at curtailing Western “dominance” and cements the deep Cold War-style rupture between Russia and the West over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

“The Russian Federation intends to give priority to the elimination of vestiges of the dominance of the United States and other unfriendly countries in world politics,” the strategy document said.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: AP Photo

The term “unfriendly countries” is used by Russia to refer to those countries, particularly in Europe and North America, that have condemned Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and adopted sanctions.

Published on the Kremlin’s website, the document says Russia would aim to “create the conditions for any state to reject neo-colonialist and hegemonic aims”.

Announcing the document at a Security Council meeting, Putin said that updates to Russia’s strategy for engagement on the global stage were necessary due to “radical changes” in the world.

The strategy reflects the Russian leader’s increasingly anti-Western stance in the face of sanctions and Western military aid to Ukraine, as was also seen in his state of the nation speech last month.

Russia has become increasingly isolated on the world stage and has sought to boost political and economic ties with countries in Africa and Asia such as China and India that have taken a more neutral stance towards its offensive in Ukraine.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Picture: AFP

In the new strategy, Russia singled out ties with China and India and stressed the importance of “the deepening of ties and co-ordination with friendly sovereign global centres of power and development located on the Eurasian continent.”

Putin recently talked up ties in particular with China during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow earlier this month.

Moscow has stepped up energy supplies to both China and India after being almost entirely cut off from its traditional European markets.

The document also described Russia as a “state civilisation” tasked with defending what it called the “Russian world” of related cultures on the Eurasian continent.

The concept of a “Russian world” is used by the Kremlin to justify its actions in Ukraine with claims that it is defending the country’s Russian-speaking minority.

The strategy also said that Russia would defend “traditional spiritual and moral values” against “pseudo-humanistic and other neoliberal ideological attitudes”.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the document recognised “the existential nature of threats to the security and development of our country, driven by the actions of unfriendly states”.

“The United States of America is directly named as the main instigator and driver of anti-Russian sentiment,” he said.

“The West’s policy of trying to weaken Russia in every possible way is characterised as a hybrid war of a new type”.

RUSSIA ARRESTS US JOURNALIST

Russia has detained a US journalist on accusations of espionage for the first time since the Cold War.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russia’s main security agency on Thursday, local time, according to the publication.

He is the first American reporter to be arrested on suspicion of spying since Nicholas Daniloff, of the US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB in 1986.

It is a major escalation toward conflict between the two great powers since the start of the war in Ukraine, following the collision and American drone and the sabotage of Russia’s gas pipeline.

The US called on all citizens Russia to leave the country immediately, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling Mr Gershkovich’s arrest part of Putin’s crackdown on media in Russia.

“We condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices,” Blinken said.

Mr Gershkovich’s detention for two months, pending a possible trial, could be extended by May 29, according to a statement by the Moscow Lefortovsky district court.

Journalist Evan Gershkovich has been detained in Russia on allegations of espionage. Picture: AFP

Russia’s FSB security service announced Gershkovich’s arrest, saying he was “suspected of spying in the interests of the American government”.

“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has stopped the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal,” the FSB said in a statement.

Evan Gershkovich will be held for at least two months, but his detention can be extended pending a possible trial. Picture: AFP

The state-run TASS news agency cited a law enforcement source as saying Gershkovich’s case has been classified “top secret” and that the US journalist said he was not guilty of the allegations.

He was arrested in Yekaterinburg, on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, and claimed he was “trying to obtain secret information” relating to “the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex,” according to the FSB.

They added Gershkovich, an accredited reporter with Russia’s foreign ministry, was “trying to obtain secret information” and “acting on the instructions of the American side”.

The Wall Street Journal denied the allegations and said it was deeply concerned for his safety and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it was “alarmed by what looks like retaliation”.

“We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family,” the US newspaper said.

Gershkovich, who worked for AFP in Moscow before joining The Wall Street Journal early last year, was taken to Moscow and appeared before the court with a state-appointed lawyer, according to TASS.

“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the Journal added.

A fluent Russian speaker, he was previously a reporter based in the Russian capital for The Moscow Times, an English-language news website.

Evan Gershkovich, US journalist working for the Wall Street Journal detained in Russia on suspicion of spying for Washington. Picture: AFP

He was arrested at a restaurant in the city of Yekaterinburg before being taken to Moscow. Picture: AFP

His arrest is a major escalation from the incarceration of US basketball Brittney Griner on drug charges, who was released in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Former US Marine Paul Whelan has been held in Russia since 2018 after he was found guilty of espionage in a closed trial and sentenced to 6 years in prison.

Mr Gershkovich dropped out of contact with his editors while working in Yekaterinburg on a day earlier, according to the outlet.

He was later said to be a man pictured being arrested at a restaurant in the city and put into a van in unverified pictures posted on Telegram.

Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said it was premature to discuss a prisoner exchange for Mr Gershkovich.

“I would not even raise the question right now” because past exchanges involved people already serving sentences,” he said., according to state newswire RIA Novosti as saying. “We’ll see how this story develops further.”

The van was seen in the yard of the Lefortovsky court before being taken to Moscow. Picture: AFP

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said there is “deep concern” for Americans who remain in Russia.

“This is not a new tactic for Mr. Putin and for Russian officials to detain foreigners and particular Americans,” Kirby said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said US president Joe Biden had been briefed and condemns the detention “in the strongest terms”.

“I want to strongly reiterate that Americans should heed the US government’s warning to not travel to Russia. US citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately,” she said.

– With AFP

Originally published as ‘Existential threat’: Russia names India as a key ally in new Cold War-style bloc with China