Sino-Russian rapprochement after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

The goal of the present article is to analyse if there was an observable change in the impact of Chinese normative power on Russia after the start of the war in Ukraine. The article finds that despite Russia’s growing dependence on China there have been no significant changes in the measure of success of Chinese normative power in Russian discourse. Russian officials refuse to copy Chinese initiatives and instead produce competitive initiatives of their own. At the same time the article observes a significant change in the perception of China among the Russian elites: while before the invasion they had a tendency to look down on China, after the invasion they portray China in a radically more positive manner.