As Kim inspects Russia's military, Putin cultivates 'axis of the sanctioned'
North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, peeked his head into the cockpit of a fighter jet at a factory in the Russian Far East on Friday as he pressed ahead on a multiday tour of Russia that is enticing him at each stop with off-limits military technology.
Although Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, hasn't promised Kim any of the weaponry and has vowed to abide by United Nations sanctions banning their transfer, the tour carried an implicit threat — an example of what analysts say is a growing danger posed by Putin's increasingly warm relationship with authoritarian leaders who can pose problems for the West.
At the same time, according to U.S. officials, Putin is cultivating new sources of arms and munitions for his war against Ukraine.
«I think it's really serious,» said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, who previously led analyses of Russia by the U.S.
intelligence community.
«It's not just that it helps Russia mitigate Western pressure and sustain the war in Ukraine,» Kendall-Taylor said. «The more important consequence is Russia is actually amplifying other challenges that the United States faces.»
The Russian president is ever more loudly casting himself as the leader of a global resistance to the United States.
Putin has embraced the ayatollah in Iran.
He has cruised the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia, with African autocrats.
Read more on economictimes.indiatimes.com
