In what appears to be an effort to undermine the United States sanctions against Russia, China indicated to its state-owned Xinhua news agency that the government will agree during Russian President Putin’s May 20-21st visit to Shanghai to invest $18.46 billion in the Crimea. The amount of the investment is highly symbolic, since it exceeds the $17 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to the Ukraine. The Chinese action is part of a series of retaliatory responses to President Obama’s Asian trip in April that was dubbed by Asian media as the “China containment tour.”  China and Russia are seeking to develop their own enhanced relationship to strategically contain the United States. Geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group told the Business Insider blog, China is “the big winner from the Ukraine crisis -- everybody wants to work with them.”  He added, “I’d say not only are they ignoring U.S./E.U....(Read Full Post)