Ever since the military coup and the new regime’s cruel treatment of its citizens, Myanmar has been increasingly shunned by the rest of the world as the rebellion of freedom-fighters against the military has become an escalating conflict that Myanmar’s government has released little to no information on. Myanmar has already been facing heavy sanctions targeting the Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung since 2019 and other military officials from the US since 2017. Now the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom have all reinforced their economic sanctions on Myanmar this past Saturday, March 26, particularly aiming to attack Myanmarese arms dealers and Myanmar’s air force as a way to impede the capability for violence of the military. Serbia, too, after being exposed and scorned by the United Nations, has pledged to cease its arms dealings with Myanmar, going back on its decision for which it was condemned to continue the trade of rockets and ammunition once the military regime seized control of the country. As Serbia withdraws, only Russia and China are left as Myanmar’s suppliers of weapons. And, ever since their ruthless invasion of Ukraine, Russia has faced similar treatment from the international community, suffering from intensive sanctions and isolated by the United Nations and forced to join Myanmar in a kind of economic exile. On March 28th this past Sunday, Myanmar held a parade for its facetious annual Armed Forces Day and Russia attended as a proclaimed friend of Myanmar. Underneath their “friendship”, their true relationship entails Russia as Myanmar’s number one trade partner in supplying the weapons that it uses to slaughter its own civilians.
This was a relationship born out of a lack of other options, and as such it is by definition a shaky one— when another option opens for Russia it will likely reduce its closeness with Myanmar as long as Myanmar continues to be ruled by a military dictatorship. This can be compared to the relationship between Russia and China as the two authoritarian countries face isolation from the western democracies, forcing them into strategic partnership despite their different ideologies and end goals. As soon as circumstances change though, either Russia or China will go for the upper hand over the other as neither one of them actually likes that the other has power to compete with them. In contrast, however, the situation with Russia and Myanmar is much more short term than the relationship between China and Russia because China is much more established in its position and its regime than Myanmar as the government in Myanmar is much newer and way less stable than in China. All it takes is for the revolutionaries in Myanmar to overthrow the military and oust the current leaders and replace them with the previously elected leaders now a part of the National Unity Government for all of Myanmar’s foreign policy, including its deals with Russia, to change. Especially because the military would be out of control, the demand for imported arms in the country of Myanmar would be drastically reduced.
Comparing Myanmar and Russia, both are countries that censor their media and are selective about the information that they release to the public and to the international community, indicating the fear of their leaders that the people would rise up against their unpopular actions (in Myanmar’s case, this is already happening, however, censoring the media still helps to keep at least some portion of their people ignorant of the government’s and military’s actions). This is a classic characteristic of authoritarian dictatorships that can be seen in many more countries beyond just Russia and Myanmar, and this stems from the changes that have occurred worldwide with the developing use of technology and the internet as they both become more and more politically critical.