With wounded Russia in retreat, a rising China is riding the waves of globalisation

There is only one planet earth, but it looks very different depending on where you are standing. I was in Kiev last week. My last visit was 10 years ago. A lot has happened during that decade, especially recently with the February 2014 revolution and the carnage in Independence Square that ensued. On the main street leading to the square are portraits of those who were killed: all ages, all professions, and both genders. Three I noticed side by side were born in 1970, 1941 and 1993. Shortly after, the Russian invasion and the annexation of Crimea followed. Tens of thousands of Russian troops remain posted in the Donbass region and the wider eastern Ukraine. Ukraine is a country partly under foreign military occupation.

Still, the traumas notwithstanding, Kiev remains the dynamic, beautiful and friendly city I remembered. I was invited to give a series of presentations on the current forces and trends of globalisation, to students, faculty and business leaders. Just a month prior to my trip, I had spent a few days in Xian (西安) to participate in the Silk Road Chamber of International Congress business summit. While there were many delegations from different parts of the Eurasian continent, as well as from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, I was intrigued by the size and active participation of the Ukrainian delegation.

Ukrainians march in Hong Kong to denounce Putin and Russia over ‘continued aggression’

I had intended to make the New Silk Road (otherwise known as “One Belt, One Road”) a topic of my presentations and, with the Xian experience and Ukrainian contacts I made, I was all the more resolved to do so. Standing on the Ukrainian part of planet earth, however, it is clear that while the Chinese promise may be rising, the Russians are not just at the doorstep, but defiantly inside the door.

From an observer’s viewpoint, Kiev is a good platform from which to perceive and compare Russia and China. I might add in passing that as I write from my flat in Lausanne, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry are meeting (over Syria) at the Beau Rivage Hotel about a five-minute walk away. The talks did not produce anything substantial – still, as Winston Churchill said, “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war”. On the other side of the planet, in Goa, the BRICS summit was taking place, which did not produce anything either, as from its very conception it was vacuous.

Global economy in precarious state, Chinese president tells BRICS summit

So, there was a good deal of discussion about Russia, not only in the sessions, but also in sundry conversations, including with the highly articulate young driver who took me from the institute where I had spoken to my hotel. I have been to Russia frequently, the first time dating back to 1965, but make no claim to know, let alone understand, it. Rather, I remain inspired by Churchill’s (again!) famous definition of Russia as a “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”.