The New York Times reports that Russia and China are opposing a broad coalition of nations seeking UN action to prevent human rights atrocities in Sudan.

Once again, Russia has chosen to ally itself with the Chinese against Europe and the United States. Is Russia hoping to appease China, the way Stalin tried to appease Hitler in World War II, in the hopes that China will not gobble up Siberia quite so fast as Hitler gobbled up Russia?

Or is it that Russia simply doesn't care about human rights, and is consumed with jealous hatred of the United States, looking for any chance to express its vitriol?

The vote will go ahead anyway, and Russia and China, the new axis of evil, will lose. But Russia will never be China's partner, it has nothing to offer China in the long term, China will simply take what it wants from Russia, namely territory.