The Olympics ramped up the masses in more ways than one. During the opening ceremony, President Xi of China and the Russian aforementioned Putin had been seen making conversation and announcing their support for one another’s policies.

Russia and China are both heavily controlled communist countries that have isolated themselves from other countries. 

Both Russia and China had skipped the global warming conference held in Scotland and the United Nations meeting regarding global conservation. 

Seeing the two leaders arm in arm raised many alarms mainly because not even five days after the end of the Olympics Russia invaded Ukraine, a separatist country that had split from Russia during the Soviet Union era.

 The two leaders later made a joint statement during the Olympics.

 “The two leaders reaffirmed their support for each other’s foreign policy – including Russia’s backing of China over Taiwan – while they also agreed on wider security issues. Both expressed concern over the AUKUS defense alliance which includes Australia, the UK, and the United States,”  the news website Al Jazeera stated. 

Photo courtesy of Ramil Sitdikov

This was not shocking news because, during the Munich Conference in 2012, Putin reaffirmed his goal to reassemble the former Soviet Union. 

Back in 2014, when Russia took Crimea, people were upset but too scared to react and now with Russia’s new bold move and both Belarus and China backing them, it’s a major cause for concern. 

Putin attending the Olympics was a warning sign and now with such a drastic outcome, other countries have placed sanctions on Russia including neutral Switzerland, who froze the Russian assets in their banks and closed their airspace. 

However, these sanctions are not slowing. Putin has been prepared for quite some time.

“Putin has modernized Russia’s armed forces and announced his intention to re-litigate the post-Soviet security arrangements of Europe,” The New Yorker stated. 

Brianna Lunney, an English teacher at Neshaminy High School and avid traveler who has resided in China for three years, expressed her fear over China and Russia’s partnership.

“The fact they have been building themselves over the last decade, both Russia and China, and the fact Putin has made himself known at the Beijing Olympics has shown the solidarity they have and the fact now that Russia is invading Ukraine has direct influence to China’s ability to invade Taiwan,” Lunney stated.

Lunney, who needed a VPN to access any outside media while living in China is fearful of the control both countries are exhibiting.

 “It does make me worried because they are both very large countries with a mass amount of citizens and a lot of control over what their citizens know,” Lunney stated. 

This war could have started at any time, but it seems like that conversation started it all, and only four days after the Olympics ended, Russia invaded Ukraine.

“It stands to seem that the beginning of the Olympics was the catapult of this whole war,” Lunney stated.