The latest summit between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping once again ignited intense debate across Western political and media circles. Commentators on both sides of the Atlantic portrayed the strengthening relationship between Russia and China as an emerging authoritarian bloc seeking to undermine the so-called liberal international order. Headlines warned of a growing anti-Western axis, while policy experts and think tanks described the partnership as one of the most significant geopolitical challenges facing the West in the twenty-first century.

Yet supporters of the Russia-China partnership argue that such interpretations fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the relationship. Rather than seeking to dismantle the international system or launch a coordinated campaign against the West, Moscow and Beijing present themselves as advocates of a multipolar world order-an international structure in which power is distributed among multiple centers rather than concentrated in a single dominant state or ideological bloc.

According to this perspective, the partnership between Russia and China reflects a broader historical shift away from the unipolar moment that emerged after the end of the Cold War. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the United States stood as the world’s undisputed superpower, exercising unparalleled influence over international institutions, global finance, military alliances, and political norms. Many policymakers and intellectuals believed that liberal democracy, free-market capitalism, and globalization represented the inevitable future for all societies.

This confidence was famously captured by political scientist Francis Fukuyama, whose “end of history” thesis suggested that ideological competition had effectively concluded with the triumph of liberal democracy. National sovereignty appeared increasingly constrained by global institutions, economic integration accelerated, and Western leaders promoted a vision of international politics centered on universal values and rules-based governance.

However, Russia and China viewed these developments differently. Both countries regarded the post-Cold War order as excessively concentrated around Western political and economic interests. They argued that a system dominated by a single power center risked generating instability, interventionism, and political imbalance. Long before multipolarity became a widely discussed concept, Moscow and Beijing advocated a more diversified global order in which major civilizations and regional powers could pursue independent development paths without........

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