The Iranian crisis has delivered a devastating blow to the credibility of both Russia and China as security partners, with countries across the Global South now "seriously reconsidering" whether Beijing's protective umbrella is worth anything at all, according to former Ukrainian Ambassador Serhiy Korsunskyy.
The diplomat laid out the case during a March 5 broadcast with Yuriy Romanenko, as "Hvylya" reported.
Korsunskyy recounted the commitments both powers had made. Iran is a member of BRICS and the SCO - "China and Russia both pushing for its inclusion." In 2021, Beijing signed a 25-year agreement with Tehran worth $400 billion in investment. Russia signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with Iran in 2024 that stopped just short of the full military alliance it had established with North Korea.
Yet when the crisis arrived, the response was near-total silence. "Xi Jinping didn't even say anything. It was at the level of the foreign minister," Korsunskyy said. Beijing's message to Tehran boiled down to a phone call expressing concern and telling Iran not to block the Strait of Hormuz. Moscow, meanwhile, offered excuses Korsunskyy dismissed as "complete nonsense for domestic consumption," noting that Russian state TV scrambled to redefine Iran as merely a "partner," not an ally.
"The weapons, as it turns out, are useless - first time in Venezuela, now in Iran," the diplomat said. The pattern is now unmistakable to any observer: Russian and Chinese military hardware has failed in every real-world test, from Maduro's Venezuela to the Islamic Republic. Countries that had been "considering sitting under a Chinese umbrella, switching from the American one to the Chinese one - they're seriously reconsidering now."
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