Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Vladimir Putin had reason to celebrate over the weekend, and not just because his client party announced victory in Georgia. Last week intelligence agencies confirmed North Korean troops had arrived to fight in Ukraine, while Putin hosted a major international summit in Kazan and secured a handshake with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Context: it’s more than two years into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Putin faces multiple international sanctions and an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. Guterres’s meeting with Putin infuriated many in Ukraine and the West; Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly refused to welcome him in Kyiv after the Kazan trip. “It was the third year of the war, and the UN secretary general was shaking hands with a murderer,” said the Russian opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, was busy trying to disprove the WSJ’s investigation that claimed Elon Musk had been talking with Putin regularly since late 2022.
Musk, who has multiple business ties with US military and intelligence agencies, including the Pentagon and NASA, is a precious ally for Putin.
If Donald Trump wins the US presidential election, Musk will likely get a role in his administration, which makes the reported link to Putin all the more alarming.
Putin’s alliances might be situational rather than ideological, but they help him achieve his goals: Brics partners are helping him to find ways round international sanctions and some of them supply Russia with weapons for the war in Ukraine. He is positioning himself as a global-level anti-Western leader, and now the North Korean army is fighting on his side against Ukraine. What’s not to like?
