Does Putin know what he's getting into with overtures to China?

[TrogL]

Sorry, I have no links. This is all from what I've heard driving around all night listening to POTUS, CNN, BBC etc on SiriusXM and YouTube videos from Beau of the 5th and similar.

Russia is down to sending untrained prisoners and old men as cannon fodder with the predictable results. Intercepted cell phone conversations reveal complete lack of leadership. One call noted (paraphrase) "we're out here running around like chickens with our heads cut off while the Ukrainians are sitting there out of range pushing fire buttons and drinking coffee".

Apparently Putin's latest bright idea is to appeal to China for trained troops to deploy in Ukraine and turn the tide of the war.

I've been worried about China invading a weakened Russia. They've been holding war games near Taiwan but we don't know the gaming scenario.

So if there are Chinese troops in Ukraine, what's to prevent them from mopping up the rest of the Russian forces, seizing Crimea and giving it back to Ukraine, making a friend in the region, then marching on the Caucasus oilfields and Moscow?

Nukes? China's nukes work just fine. I'm betting Russia's nukes have gone through decades of neglect just like the rest of their equipment and won't even launch.

[SCantiGOP]

1. Just like Hitler claimed sovereignty over countries with German populations

and Russia says the same about Ukraine and other former Soviet countries, China has long-standing history with much of Siberia and the eastern areas of Russia.
Wouldn't it be a shame if Pooty ended up losing the eastern third of his new empire?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

3. ....

Wouldn't it be a shame if Pooty ended up losing the eastern third of his new empire?

Xi to Putin: Nice country you got there, shame if anything happened to it.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

2. Putin spent billions of rubles to modernize their nuclear forces,

if they had to send those nukes downrange, they will work, even if only 10% worked correctly, it would still be a global disaster on a scale never seen before.

[Chainfire]

4. I will be surprised if China sends combat troops to Ukraine.

The military speculations of a plumber...

For the same Reason that we haven't sent combat troops to Ukraine, don't think that we will see Chinese troops in Ukraine. I can't see China sending any really advanced weapons for Russia to play with either, although, I can see them selling the Russians a lot of other common weapons, just like we are doing with Ukraine.

Russia and China are not natural allies. What would China gain by going to war in Ukraine? If the Chinese put a successful Army into Ukraine, the Russians would have no way of making them leave. You have to believe that Putin mulls that over. Russians are paranoid of everybody, I just don't see Russia inviting a foreign army in.

China is going to have to be stingy with their war resources if they are going to continue to saber rattle in Taiwan. China wants to control the Pacific. They want the same thing that the Japanese wanted in WWII. The worst possible situation for the Chinese would be to get in a war on two fronts, against Europe on one side and the US on the other at the same time. China has a gazillion bodies for cannon fodder, but that does not make for a modern professional army.

Chinese troops in Ukraine would cause a logistic nightmare. It is nearly 5,000 miles from China to Ukraine. The Russian road system is horrible with many roads impassible in bad weather. Russia can't provide for their own army, how would they provision the Chinese?

Putin's folly has put Russia in a real bind, but I don't think they find salvation from the East.

[Samrob]

5. It's always been an off-and-on romance between these two. Trump presented a triangle. nt

[2naSalit]

6. He's desperate...

Among other things.