Putin is now diplomatically left out in the cold.

In 1964, in the lead up to the British election, Harold Wilson (left) is supposed to have coined the famous phrase, ‘A week is a long time in politics.’

The current frenzied diplomatic actions and political statements coming from the mouths of EU, UK, US, and international politicians, as Putin now threatens 'nuclear war' if his demands to turn Ukraine into a vassal state of Russia are not met, now changes Harold Wilson's famous phrase into, "An hour is a long time in politics".

US Vice President Kamala Harris at Munich Security Conference : BBC 19 Feb 2022

 

As US Vice President Kamala Harris lays out the level of sanctions against Putin and his cronies should he invade Ukraine, Aljazeera reports that,

"Russia’s President Vladimir Putin oversaw military manoeuvres by strategic nuclear missile forces as the worst crisis since the Cold War grips Europe.
.....
The Russian leader [Putin] reportedly ordered the drills to begin. Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made a reference to nuclear launch codes.

“Such test launches, of course, are impossible without the head of state. You know about the famous black suitcase and the red button,” Peskov said." (Aljazeera : 19 February 2022) (my emphasis) 

Aljazeera : YouTube 18 February 2022

And whilst Putin and Lukashenko were watching military manoeuvres by strategic nuclear missile forces,

"Ukraine's Russian-backed breakaway eastern territories have ordered military mobilisations amid a deadly escalation in fighting. Men of fighting age in the self-declared people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are being put on stand-by.
......
Western nations have accused Russia of trying to stage a fake crisis in the eastern regions as a pretext to invade. International monitors report a "dramatic increase" in attacks along the line dividing rebel and government forces." (BBC : 19 February 20223) (my emphasis)

Russian Fake Crisis Propaganda : CNN : 20 Feb 2022

But as Putin waves his 'nuclear stick' at Ukraine and, more specifically, at NATO, 

"Beijing's Foreign Minister [Wang Yi] (left) said that Ukraine had the right to safeguard its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.....

"With an invasion looking increasingly imminent, China's top diplomat used his appearance at the Munich security conference on Saturday to warn Mr Putin against following through on his expansionist ambitions.
Wang Yi affirmed Ukraine's right to safeguard its territorial integrity and urged a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis. (John Varga : Daily Express : 19 February 2022) (my emphasis)

This position of China must have somewhat shocked Putin, given that barely a week ago,

"Wang Yi's slap-down of Mr Putin comes as a major surprise, given that China's President Xi Jinping appeared to back Mr Putin's Ukraine policy.

The two leaders met in Beijing at the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics. They issued a joint statement calling on the West to “abandon the ideologised approaches of the cold war”. (ibid John Varga) (my emphasis)

Putin, however, cannot allow himself to be seen internationally as being somewhat dictated to by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During the early 1960's it was Mao's China who had an ideological rift with the then USSR, argueing that the USSR had become "revisionist" by NOT taking a belligerent stand against the West.

"The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism, as influenced by their respective geopolitics during the Cold War (1945–1991).[2] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sino-Soviet debates about the interpretation of orthodox Marxism became specific disputes about the USSR's policies of national de-Stalinization and international peaceful coexistence with the Western world, which CPC chairman Mao Zedong decried as revisionism. Against that ideological background, China took a belligerent stance towards the West, and publicly rejected the USSR's policy of peaceful coexistence between the Eastern and Western blocs.[2] In addition, Beijing resented the closer Soviet ties with India, and Moscow feared Mao was too nonchalant about the horrors of nuclear war." (Wikipedia) (my emphasis) (above: Mao and Khrushchev)

Ironically, it is now Beijing's Foreign Secretary, Wang Yi, who is arguing against Putin trying to re-create the old USSR through his 'expansionist' ambitions over Ukraine, and by taking a belligerent stand against the West, which itself is determined to defend Ukraine's borders and territorial integrity.

Without China supporting him in his belligerent stand against the West, Putin is now diplomatically left out in the cold.

Whether this will make him change his mind about invading Ukraine is, however, another matter.

In the words of Mikhail Khordokovsky,

"He (Putin) is convinced of his own infallibility, and he is capable of all sorts of actions, including ill-judged ones." (Sky News : 6 February 2022) (my emphasis)"

(to be continued)