Tahir Azad
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine made Europe’s eastern flank the main battleground for modern great-power politics. However, the war’s infrastructure has become more Eurasian than just European. As NATO countries increased their military, intelligence, training, and financial support for Ukraine, Moscow responded by expanding its strategic depth to the east and south. It did this by using partnerships with Asian countries to make up for losses on the battlefield, restock its supplies, stabilize its revenue streams, and make its war economy more resistant to sanctions. This was not an “alliance system” in the way that people thought of it during the Cold War. It looked like a flexible, uneven, and often deniable ecosystem of state ties, business connections, and military-technical exchanges.
The core idea is simple: Western support made it more expensive for Russia to be aggressive, but it also gave third parties, especially those who were sanctioned, strategically non-aligned, or revisionist, reasons to work more closely with Moscow. North Korea’s weapons and troops, Iran’s drone and missile transfers, and China’s role as an economic and dual-use “backbone” all helped Russia stay connected and keep its operations going. At the same time, major Asian energy importers, especially India and China, helped keep Russia’s economy strong by buying oil and doing shipping and financial workarounds – like the “shadow fleet” – even as sanctions got stricter.
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