To the right, piles of dug earth stretch for miles next to the road - a Ukrainian defensive measure to force Russian forces up a single route. In the spring of that year hundreds of thousands of students and workers occupied central Beijing to protest against corruption and rising prices, and demand reform. Behind the high walls of the Communist Party's leadership compound, Zhongnanhai, the party's top rung split. Moderates led by Zhao tried to use the protests to push further reform. Hardliners, led by Premier Li Peng, believed the students' goal was to overthrow the party, and wanted the protests quashed. The announcement, however, infuriated officials in Washington, who believe the OPEC+ decision will help Russia withstand US and European sanctions and undermine Western efforts to isolate Putin’s government. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru The only thing that remains from Mao-era China is the party. And that, she says, is what Xi truly cares about. Xi was a princeling - the son of one of Mao's lieutenants, Xi Zhongxun, who had been purged and later rehabilitated. Colleagues described the younger Xi as humble, self-disciplined and hardworking but otherwise unremarkable. Even on the eve of his elevation to general secretary of the Communist Party there was little hint of what was to come. "My first introduction to China was in the 1980s, when the debates about China's future were huge, significant, and consequential," Prof Karl says. "The party itself was involved in those debates. But 1989 shut that down." Gadfly was mobilised in March and isn't a professional soldier. His country has the current momentum, but he thinks they can only fully force Russia out if the West continues with its military support.