Spinning Plates, Shifting Plates

When the UN General Assembly voted to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then the following countries formally abstained: Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burundi, the Central African Republic, China, Congo, Cuba, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Recording no vote were Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.

The African theme is particularly pronounced, as is the presence of most of the former Soviet Union. The first list alone covers something in the region of three billion people. You will have noticed South Africa. Pakistan has already done a deal for Russian grain. India has had a very close strategic relationship with Russia since 1955. It and China have decided to trade with Russia in their own respective currencies, rather in the US dollar. Kicking Russia out of SWIFT, as has yet to happen, would only hasten the end of SWIFT. And so on.