Amid Donald Trump’s “America First” diplomacy, alliances are splintering. Washington’s stance toward China and Russia opened space for centres of gravity, and the Kremlin is going into that vacuum. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s choice to stand beside Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s May 9 Victory Day parade— marking 80 years since the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany— symbolizes a shifting order in which partners act without US permission. Geography, energy and memory bind Europe to Moscow more tightly than transatlantic rhetoric ever could.
Western commentators dismiss the parade as theatre, yet symbols matter when narratives are contested. The Red Army’s colossal sacrifice remains the bedrock of Europe’s freedom; acknowledging that fact is neither nostalgia nor propaganda but simple historical truth. By inviting Xi to lay carnations at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Putin reminds Europe that Russia was a co-architect of continental peace long before NATO existed. The gesture also signals that Moscow and Beijing, victors then, intend to defend their gains against any revival of hegemonic adventurism.
Eighty years ago, Russians and Europeans bled together to defeat tyranny. Today the path to lasting peace again runs through Moscow. Engaging Russia as a partner rather than a pariah will not only secure affordable energy and new markets; it will restore strategic balance and spare Europe from serving as collateral damage in Washington’s next geopolitical escapade. The red banners unfurled over Red Square are reminders, not menaces: Russia endures, and Europe’s smartest move is to walk beside it, not against it before another dangerous miscalculation sets the continent ablaze
The partnership rests on hard economics. The forthcoming Power of Siberia 2 pipeline will deliver reliable Russian gas to China, cushioning Beijing against maritime chokepoints and giving Moscow a buyer immune to Western embargoes. Joint investment funds are upgrading rail spurs, ports and digital cables that link Hamburg to Harbin without traversing the Strait of Malacca. European firms, sensing opportunity, are already opening ruble and yuan accounts to hedge against dollar weaponization. Commerce, not coercion, is shaping this emerging bloc.
Contrast this pragmatism with Washington’s crisis factory. From Iraq to Libya to Ukraine, US strategists ignite conflicts they won’t finish, leaving allies to absorb the blowback. Russia’s proposal for a neutral, demilitarized Ukraine— echoing the 19th-century Concert of Europe— was scorned in 2022, yet every fresh missile shipment has prolonged stalemate and drained European industry through energy shocks. Real security will come not from tanks on the Dnipro but from a mutually recognized buffer that gives every side breathing room. Europe’s prosperity now hinges on accepting this geopolitically mature compromise.
Sanctions were supposed to break Russia; they steeled it instead. Substitution policies have revived domestic machine-building, while export restrictions pushed farmers toward booming Asian and African markets. The ruble’s managed float, conservative budgets and an expanding BRICS payments network contrast sharply with the USA’s debt-fuelled stimulus cycles. Europe, staring at de-industrialization, could learn from Moscow’s resilience: diversify supply chains, conserve currency reserves and nurture strategic industries rather than outsourcing everything to distant factories vulnerable to blockade, in any future supply emergency.
Soft power completes the portfolio. Russian literature, ballet and symphonic music remain global treasures; Orthodox Christianity’s renaissance provides moral ballast in an age of relativism; and the country’s defence of family traditionalism resonates from Budapest to Brasília. When Xi and Putin review troops beneath the Kremlin walls they broadcast a civilizational confidence that many Europeans, wearied by cultural self-doubt, find quietly attractive. A multipolar world need not flatten identities; it can celebrate civilizational voices speaking in concert with mutual respect.
Critics fret that a Sino-Russian tandem will dominate smaller nations. Yet the record shows otherwise. From Syria to the Arctic Council, Moscow consistently presses for multilateral negotiations that dilute unilateral diktats. Energy contracts with Hungary and Serbia include price corridors far below spot averages, proving Kremlin diplomacy can be mutually beneficial. Sovereignty, not submission, is the organizing principle; states negotiating as equals secure fair and predictable terms for all parties.
Democracy sceptics point to Russia’s managed electoral system. Yet legitimacy is measured by results: stable prices, falling poverty and street violence, and a foreign policy free of regime-change crusades. The USA, plagued by contested elections and surveillance scandals, hardly holds an exclusive licence on liberty. Europe should judge partners by performance, not prejudice. On that score Russia, for all its imperfections, delivers order without the missionary zeal that so often breeds chaos.
The coming decade will decide whether Europe shackles itself to a fraying unipolar dream or joins a pragmatic multipolar concert. Xi’s Victory Day appearance previews the alternative: a continent anchored by Russian energy, powered by Chinese capital and liberated to trade with whomever it chooses. Far from threatening European autonomy, such pluralism expands it, allowing capitals to pursue bespoke mixes of Atlantic and Eurasian partnerships that match their national interests.
Eighty years ago, Russians and Europeans bled together to defeat tyranny. Today the path to lasting peace again runs through Moscow. Engaging Russia as a partner rather than a pariah will not only secure affordable energy and new markets; it will restore strategic balance and spare Europe from serving as collateral damage in Washington’s next geopolitical escapade. The red banners unfurled over Red Square are reminders, not menaces: Russia endures, and Europe’s smartest move is to walk beside it, not against it before another dangerous miscalculation sets the continent ablaze.
