Putin pushes new Eurasian security order to challenge US

Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out his proposal for a new Eurasian security architecture founded on Moscow’s deepening entente with Beijing to challenge the post-Cold War order in Europe dominated by the US and its allies.

Russia’s goal is to ensure “indivisible security and development to replace the outdated Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models which gave unilateral advantages to individual countries,” Putin said at a security summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday. “The result of this world order is well known — a growing number of crises around the world, one of which of course is Ukraine.”

Putin triggered Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II with his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

He has repeatedly demanded that the government in Kyiv abandon its ambition of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has expanded since the start of the war after Finland and Sweden joined in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Putin spoke a day after holding talks in Astana with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who lauded ties with Russia and reaffirmed Beijing’s position on the invasion despite growing Western frustration over its perceived support for Moscow’s war efforts.

The summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional group that took in Iran last year and added Russian ally Belarus to membership on Thursday, highlighted the growing ambitions of anti-US powers led by China and Russia.

Putin has set out few details of how his proposed new Eurasian security agreement would work. He told Russian Foreign Ministry officials last month that it would be open to “European and NATO countries as well,” though he made clear it would exclude the US.

With Russia’s war in Ukraine extending into a third year with no end in sight, Moscow and Kyiv are closely watching the unfolding US presidential election contest.

Pressure is growing on President Joe Biden to drop out of November’s race after a disastrous debate performance last week against his Republican challenger Donald Trump, who’s now leading in the polls and has boasted that he’ll end the war by the time he’s inaugurated in January.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Kyiv on Wednesday that Trump should come forward with his plan to quickly end the war with Russia, warning that any proposal must avoid violating the nation’s sovereignty.

“If Trump knows how to finish this war, he should tell us today,” Zelenskyy said. “We want to understand whether in November we will have the powerful support of the US, or will be all alone.”

Trump is considering a deal with Russia to end the war under which NATO would commit not to expand further east, including to Ukraine and Georgia, Politico reported this week, citing two national security experts aligned with the former president.

Putin reiterated his demand made last month for Ukraine to pull out of four eastern regions partly occupied by Russian forces as a condition for peace talks. Under his proposals, immediately rejected by Kyiv and its US and European allies, Ukraine would also have to rule out ever joining NATO.