Is China helping Russia in the war? A new consideration
You need a lot of Sitzfleisch and perhaps a whisky and soda ready to hand to sit through the Russian talk shows and extract something useful and worth sharing. But with some luck, I do tune in occasionally at the right moment. Yesterday’s Evening with Vladimir Solovyov was a case in point.
The star performer and key “informant” about the home front in the ongoing war over Ukraine was not an outspoken colonel in retirement but a gentleman in the creative arts whom I have quoted on these pages in the past, Karen Shakhnazarov, general manager of the Mosfilm studios.
It bears mentioning that Shakhnazarov is not just an administrator or producer seated behind his desk in headquarters but remains an active director of films whose latest adventure film is now running in cinemas across the country. It also bears mention that in the past week he was a recipient of a high state award for his life’s work in a Kremlin ceremony presided over by Vladimir Putin at which fellow laureates were discoverers of cures for cancer and other leaders of professional life across the country. In the political spectrum, Shakhnazarov is a standard bearer of Soviet and Marxist values. The significance of all the foregoing is that Karen Shakhnazarov has contacts across the creative classes of Russia, for whom he is, willy nilly, the spokesman on the Solovyov program, where other panelists come from the State Duma, from university circles and from expert journals on global politics.
Shakhnazarov’s remarks last night that I believe are worth repeating answered the question I posed a week or so ago regarding the value of China’s assistance to Russia in the ongoing war. Like many foreign observers I called this aid niggardly. However, Shakhnazarov looked at the home front dimension and said, with reason, that the Russians have nothing to complain about.
Where does he see the Chinese contribution? It is on the streets of Moscow and in cities and towns across Russia where maybe a third of the cars are now Chinese, i.e., both imported vehicles and vehicles manufactured in Russia in factories either owned or receiving massive technical assistance from China. And this development did not just happen, opined Shakhnazarov. It could only result from directives at the highest political level to the Chinese automobile manufacturing companies concerned.
Does this have importance for maintaining stability and normality in the Russian marketplace? Does this ensure that Russians have the transportation means to get to work each day? The answer to both questions is yes.
As a case in point, Shakhnazarov pointed to the new models of the Moskvich which are now being advertised on Russian television. They look splendid and they are manufactured in factories that were abandoned by Western producers who quit the market not long after the onset of the Special Military Operation.
It is indeed stunning that the reopening of these plants was achieved in less than 15 months. This entailed reorganizing, re-engineering the assembly lines to suit entirely different vehicles from those of the companies that had originally set them up, solving challenges of new supply chains.
Thank you, Mr. Shakhnazarov, for calling our attention to an issue of considerable importance that has not yet been picked up by the Wall Street Journal or The Financial Times, which so far speak only about the penetration of imported Chinese vehicles in the Russian market at the expense of imported VW, Citroen, Toshiba and other cars from ‘unfriendly countries.’.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023