Putin isolation something of Western bias: report

NEW YORK -- The suggestion that Russian President Vladimir Putin is isolated may still be something of a Western bias -- an assumption based on a definition of the "world" as places of privilege, largely the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, The Washington Post reported.

"Of the 193 members of the United Nations, 141 voted to condemn Moscow's unprovoked attack on its neighbor. But that majority vote doesn't tell the more nuanced story," said the analysis article last week titled "Outside the West, Putin is less isolated than you might think."

The giants of the Global South, including India, Brazil and South Africa, are hedging their bets; even NATO-member Turkey is acting coy, moving to shut off the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to all warships, not just the Russians, said the article.

"Some citizens in emerging economies are gazing at Ukraine and seeing themselves without a dog in this fight -- and with compelling national interests for not alienating Russia," and "in a broad swath of the developing world, the Kremlin's talking points are filtering into mainstream news and social media," it said.

Meanwhile, "the gulf between the West and the Global South may also be worsening during the pandemic and the era of climate change, as developing nations grow increasingly resentful of the self-interested responses in the United States and Europe," added the article.