News Analysis
There’s no vacuum in geopolitics, so holistic thinking is needed to arrive at reasonable assessments. Iran has survived all these years, even while under more or less strict sanctions, partially because the regimes in Russia and China keep ignoring the sanctions by buying its oil, and selling it weapons and diplomatic protection.
From this viewpoint, if a nation can be assisted in evading strong Western sanctions, not only is the effect on the sanctioned country reduced, but the influence of the one that offered the assistance grows in tandem.
This has been happening with the current sanctions on Russia. After signing agreements of “unlimited cooperation” between Russia and China, and waiting for the Winter Olympics to conclude, Russia attacked Ukraine. For example, when Visa and Mastercard pulled out of Russia, China’s UnionPay stepped in to process transactions.
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