China’s Xi praises Putin’s ‘strong leadership’ as they meet in Moscow

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Vladimir Putin on Monday he was convinced the Russian people would support the Kremlin chief in a presidential election due for 2024.

“I know that next year there will be another presidential election in your country,” Xi said to Putin at the start of the talks in the Kremlin. “Thanks to your strong leadership, Russia has made significant progress in achieving prosperity of the country in recent years. I am sure that the Russian people will strongly support you in your good endeavors,” he continued.

Xi, whose words were translated into Russian, referred to Putin as his “dear friend”, with Putin using the same towards his guest.

Putin, who came to power on the last day of the year 1999 following Boris Yeltsin’s resignation, has not yet declared whether or not he will be running in 2024.

Putin began his meeting with Xi Jinping. pic.twitter.com/A2eLT7XtlV

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The two leaders met in Moscow on Monday, both for deepening their economic ties while seeing each other as allies being a valuable counterweight to the West, and furthermore in Xi’s case to promote Beijing’s role as a potential peacemaker in Ukraine.

Putin also agreed to discuss China’s “peace plan” for Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western allies say any truce would just buy Putin time to reinforce ahead of a planned Ukrainian counter-offensive and that for Russia and China to uphold international law as they say they do, they must agree to Russia's withdrawal. Xi was the first leader to meet the Russian strongman since the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant for Putin last Friday over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during the year-long invasion of Ukraine.