Thinking about the relation of Russia and China. Can be considered a continuation of this: >>51213
I read, see, hear time to times that China might just absorb Russia in the future, if not with literal annexation, simply by overshadowing influence, and weakening Russia's in other countries until in the end it will be just a puppet of China. I also heard that China might actually launch a war against Russia, since she is overpopulated, and Russia has a huge amount of empty land just north of her this I find nonsense, firstly China's population is in decline now, and I believe if China would need agricultural products, I'm sure they could come up with some agreement in investing into Russian farming, so they produce food for them, the power of capitalism. I certainly see in the Central Asian countries, the *Stans, a point where Chinese and Russian interest could clash as well.
I do think they know in the Kremlin about the danger of Russia losing power, losing influence, and they consciously try to keep everything in balance, nice and civilised by relying institutions, such as the BRICS, or even the UN. They try to steer towards these cooperations of sovereign nations, try to inflate them as a puffer. All these cooperations and agreements, and international involvments can pull the posin teeth of the snake, and ensure a balance between the powers. Perhaps even China sees that, and has her own interest to similarly steering in that direction as well.
Besides BRICS there is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation too. And regarding the Central Asian countries, they are members of a number of organizations such as the Economic Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Organization of Turkic States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Neither of those has anything to do with China. Ofc any can be dessolved at any time, and their level of seriousness also can vary, but all these organizations are there to keep things civilized and people talking. War at least is an extremely slim possibility.