This week to the sound of drum rolls and trumpets Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed

Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Kremlin.

It was a very dramatic ceremony.

The TV cameras picked up how the two presidents strobe towards together in this massive marbled

hall.

That's Mary Aleushna.

She covers Russia for the post.

And she says while this meeting isn't exactly unusual, Putin and she have met many times,

it's a really important one because it's Xi's first visit to Russia since Putin's invasion

of Ukraine.

Moscow became really isolated from the international community, you know, was contrived by the West.

So this visit is really important because it kind of supports the fundamental Kremlin talking

point that it's not as isolated as the West is trying to present it.

It still has allies.

So this is definitely a way for Russia to prove that it's still very much doing fine despite

the Western pressure and for China to kind of show that it's able to do whatever it wants.

And Mary says China and Russia are doing more than just giving each other legitimacy and

reaffirming their support for each other.

They're also working together to try and change the balance of global power.

So Russian China are trying to create this post-American new world order where US is not the

arbiter of everything that happens on the global stage.

Both Putin and Xi Jinping find themselves sort of in this very confrontational relationship

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