While a formal alliance is out of the question, the West for too long assumed Beijing and Moscow are fundamental rivals.

The largest military exercises in decades will see hundreds of thousands of troops in something approaching real combat.

Trump has called Putin a “good competitor” and warned about China, but Moscow has reasons to keep Beijing on side.

Contrast gains from US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, with Russia in Georgia, Syria and Ukraine.

<p>When a US president’s policies are indistinguishable from the KGB heirs’, the world is indeed turned upside down.</p>

Russian arms sales get all the attention, but Moscow’s campaign to undermine trust is a real threat in the region.

<p>The Helsinki Summit was judged as a&nbsp;spectacle, far more than on what the talks were supposed to deliver.</p>

Kim Jong-un’s summit with Donald Trump captured attention, but on the Korean Peninsula, many convoluted ploys are afoot.

The summit with Putin reflects an ongoing US strategic failure to learn to think how Moscow thinks.

The difficulty for the UK now is in crafting a fresh response to the continued effects of Russia’s brazen attack.

<p>The World Cup is a chance for authoritarian countries to appear more committed to idealistic internationalism.</p>

With equipment that appears almost James Bond–esque, Russia’s deep-sea fleet is potential hidden menace.

After nearly two dozen bilateral meetings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Japan’s Shinzo Abe still cannot show meaningful progress on a territorial dispute between the two nations.

Leaders promote and protect their clients to secure a debt of personal loyalty, and the cost of betrayal is high.

The future of a fragile ceasefire over an unresolved conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh could in turn have broad strategic implications.

Airstrikes aside, the US needs Moscow to influence the Assad regime and negotiate an end to this sordid conflict.

Why did Japan and South Korea not join the expulsion of Russian diplomats after the Skripal attack?

Jostling over Syria offers a glimpse of emerging alliances and compromises as the US-led security order winds down.

Surprising parallels in international relations appear to lead to similar replies.

The alternatives to Russian culpability in the nerve agent attack strain credulity.

Governments should not rely on assertion and bombast, which is what has happened in the Skripal case.

Moscow has little to sell besides gas, oil, and military hardware – and that drives Russian policy in the region.

The West continually fails to comprehend Putin’s Russia and its mentality.

Suspicions about the attempted assassination of a former Russian spy in Britain are born of bitter experience.

Moscow's efforts will likely damage its own security more than anything else.

Vladimir Putin is haunted by his own words on this tragic conflict.

Vladimir Putin could never countenance anything other than a swift and severe response to Syrian rebels who shot down a Russian Su-25.

A trans-Arctic sea cable would afford the Kremlin a significant opportunity to demonstrate its role in developing the Arctic commons.

Putin’s election to a fourth term in March is a foregone conclusion.

An attack by a swarm of drones shows Russia’s fight in Syria is far from over.

Vladimir Putin is burnishing his strong-man image but Russian forces are still in Syria.

Evaluating intelligence and why questions about Donald Trump's ties to Russia won't go away.

Unrest plays into Russia’s geopolitical vision, yet Moscow has now assumed the obligation to provide a stable Syrian government.

In Russia's view, real responsibility for the crisis lies with the US.

On Pakistan, Trump has said out loud what has until now been largely debated and threatened in private.

When it comes to Germany and Russia, pragmatic economic interests run up against a philosophical commitment to human rights and a liberal European order, and adherence to the positions of NATO and the EU.

Each month – each week – brings new and alarming developments in US-Russian relations. The only question is: how much worse can things get?

With Battulga now at the helm in Mongolia, the Moscow-Ulaanbaatar relationship looks set to deepen.

To really unleash economic growth, Russia would need institutional reforms that take on entrenched interests, rent-seeking and corruption.

It needs to be understood that Russia views the EU and the West generally as an enemy.

Putin must now be tempted to suspect that God is a Russian; or at least on the side of his righteous and much maligned compatriots.

Most of the most serious consequences have occurred not because of Trump’s actions. But as a result of leaks from within the US intelligence community and the White House.

Blank reiterates the popular, but implausible, claim that Xi's determination to be strongest ruler in China since Mao is influenced by Putin.

As long as China doesn't challenge the fundamental system of rule in Russia (as the US does), then it will remain a preferred partner if not an ally.

Western interests and norms are challenged less by the Sino-Russian partnership than by China and Russia acting individually.

Russia’s adaptation to the asymmetry in relations with China stands in stark contrast to its clash with the EU over Ukraine and Eastern Europe in general.

Russian cooperation which builds Chinese military capabilities is more important and more detrimental to Western interests than any grand rhetoric coming out of officials’ mouths.

This week the Lowy Institute launched its latest Penguin Special, 'A Wary Embrace'. The author, Dr Bobo Lo, sat down with me to talk about future China-Russia relations.

In a world of growing complexity and uncertainty, the Russo-Chinese relationship is not sufficiently robust to serve as a stabilising force.

Many Russians know that most Chinese know that in the 1860s, tsarist Russia acquired 1.4 million square kilometres of Chinese territory.