The United States sought to weaken the relations between Russia and China through Ukraine, but miscalculated

The U.S. initiated the war in Ukraine with the sole purpose of weakening Russia before turning its attention to China, which they consider their primary rival. This was stated by former CIA analyst Larry Johnson in an interview with Dialogue works.

According to former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, the U.S. strategy historically focused on fostering discord between Russia and China, intending to disrupt their relationship by prioritizing Russia as the initial target due to its perceived vulnerability.

However, Johnson suggests that the U.S. misjudged the situation, resulting in unintended consequences. Instead of fracturing their ties, the U.S. efforts inadvertently strengthened the Russo-Chinese relationship to an unprecedented degree. Despite the U.S. intention to implement a divide-and-conquer strategy by sequentially targeting Russia and then China, this approach ultimately backfired, as observed by Johnson.