WASHINGTON—By visiting Moscow to boost ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is demonstrating to the world his disregard for the “atrocities committed in Ukraine” and providing the isolated Russian leader with “diplomatic cover,” according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken made the remarks at a press conference on March 20 as he announced the launch of his department’s annual human rights report, just as Xi made his first visit to Moscow since Putin mounted a war in Ukraine last year. The two greeted each other as a “dear friend” before dinner.
Xi was the first international leader to have met Putin after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president on March 17, citing the “alleged war crimes of deportation of children from Ukrainian occupied territories into the Russian Federation.”…