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21 Dec, 2022 07:58

Medvedev delivers ‘personal message’ from Putin to Xi The top officials met on Wednesday to discuss ties between their two ruling parties, which they lead

Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia and current deputy chair of the Security Council, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday during a visit to Beijing.

Medvedev’s office said that during his meeting with Xi he delivered a personal message from Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Russian media. Xinhua said it contained friendly greetings and best wishes to Xi, who asked his guest to convey his response in kind to the Russian leader.

In a brief statement about the nature of the meeting, Medvedev said he and his Chinese host discussed intra-party cooperation, among other things. Xi was re-elected as secretary general of the Communist Party of China in October. Medvedev leads the ruling United Russia party.

The two officials also discussed bilateral relations between China and Russia as well as international affairs, including the crisis in Ukraine, Medvedev added. He called the talk “very useful.”

China's president hailed contacts between the two parties as a unique platform for building political trust between the nations, according to a statement carried by Xinhua.

Speaking about the situation in Ukraine, Xi reiterated China’s call for restraint by all parties and urged them to find a peaceful resolution. He expressed hope that the conflict could be ended through political means.

According to Xinhua, Medvedev said that events remained complicated but that Moscow was willing to resolve them through peace talks.

“Shoigu has announced the need to make a number of structural changes to the country’s armed forces in light of NATO’s attempts to bolster its presence on Russia’s border and expand its membership to Finland and Sweden.”

Apparently Shoigu forgot that it collapsed the entire country the last time they tried to compete with NATO militarily.

Prewar, the army’s headcount target was 850K. In August, that goal went to 1.15m. The December 22/January 23 target would appear to be 1.5m.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/russian-army-expansion-won-t-100100188.html
[Russia is likely looking to recover losses from its invasion of Ukraine, and even then, the Russian army is unlikely to “reach an end strength of over 1,150,000 soldiers as the decree stipulates.” The report points out that Russian forces “has not historically met its end-strength targets:” it had around 850,000 active-duty troops before the invasion, against a target of one million.]

The first commenter at the Yahoo piece was hopeful, but his projection has yet to bear fruit:

[U has not regained even one handful of earth. Russia is moving toward Odesa to make U a land locked country. These things we actually know.]