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friend in need is a friend indeed. But what sort of a friend is China really to Russia? Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who will welcome President Xi Jinping to Moscow on Friday, would like to think that an evermore powerful Beijing is the perfect antidote to western antagonism. On the surface, the omens are good. Mr Xi will be the most prominent world leader to attend the May 9 Victory Day parade, which marks the 70th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis by the Soviet Union.

Leaders of the US, the UK, Germany and France are boycotting the event in protest at Russia’s annexation of Crimea and incursion into eastern Ukraine. Mr Putin is likely to use their absence to stir up Russia’s sense of victimhood and nationalist outrage. The presence of Mr Xi, whose Communist party also uses history as a nationalist tool, will be a big plus.