Your simplistic plug 'n' play idea of geopolitics doesn't withstand evidence. Modi and Xi humiliated Putin at the Samarkand summit by criticizing Russia's war against Ukraine.

Modi: "we do not live in an era of war".

In November during a Scholz visit Xi warned Putin not to use nukes in Ukraine.

In Samarkand Putin had to engage in a humiliating climb down and acknowledge their "concerns".

Russia is a Chinese vassal state, at best.

India is a Chinese adversary and needs the US to counter China. Remember that pesky border dispute and border clashes?

NEW DELHI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Russia's flagship Urals crude has been sold at deeper discounts this month following a European ban on Russian oil imports, and dominant buyer India has bought barrels at well below a $60 price cap agreed by the West, four market sources said.

The Russia-China "alliance" is like the Nazi-Soviet pact, a temporary transactional marriage of convenience against the threats of American and EU democracy and human rights promotion (Uighurs, Taiwan, Myanmar). Or, at best, the non-functional Germany-Japan alliance in WWII. Your idea that Russia gains "2 billion people" on its side from these relationships is absurd.