Riyadh has maintained its cooperative relationship with Russia since Putin sent troops into neighbouring Ukraine in late February. In fact, at the start of the war, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Co invested at least $500m in Gazprom, Rosneft and Lukoil, just as the West was punishing these Russian energy giants with sanctions. In the first year of Covid, Prof Yang says, the lockdowns made sense. They were brief and allowed life in China to carry on. There was even pride at how the country was handling the pandemic so much better than the West. "That's no longer the case," he says. This is starkly different from Mao's idea of a multi-ethnic state where, in theory, different groups had more autonomy. Xi's father too had a reputation for conciliation and respect for China's ethnic minorities. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru The only thing that remains from Mao-era China is the party. And that, she says, is what Xi truly cares about. He tweets: "It is time for us to end the leadership contest and get a prime minister in place ASAP. Although no Arab government – save Syria – has been outrightly supportive of Russia’s invasion, occupation and annexation of Ukrainian land, Arab statesmen do not believe their governments should burn bridges with Moscow because of this conflict. Many of them finished their tests early, she added - and nobody was caught cheating this year. “There was no doubt that Riyadh perceived a need to maintain cordial ties with Moscow, both to coordinate oil production as well as maintain a solid dialogue with Russia over its Iran initiatives,” Joseph A Kechichian, a senior fellow at the King Faisal Centre in Riyadh, told Al Jazeera, referring to Moscow’s relationship with Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran. Do relations with Saudi Arabia still serve US interests? Yet in the words of the Ukrainian soldier Gadfly, "what choice do we have"?