President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia's model relations with China in a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and confirmed that he would attend Beijing's Olympics, as both countries are facing increasing criticism from the West.
The video call came days after G 7 foreign ministers discussed Moscow's sabre-rattling against Ukraine and Beijing's crackdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
The talks came after both Russia and China were pointedly left out of the democracy summit of US President Joe Biden last week.
In February we will finally be able to meet in Beijing, Putin said in a television broadcast of the conversation, after he said he would attend the Games, calling Xi his dear friend China-Russia relations have withstood all kinds of stern tests and are showing new dynamism and vitality, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
He accused international forces of meddling in China and Russia in the name of democracy and human rights and grossly trampling on international law, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.
China and Russia must work together to protect both sides' security and interests, the statement said.
The United States, Britain, Canada and Australia are not sending political representatives to the Olympics due to China's abuse of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Both Beijing and Moscow denounced the diplomatic boycott and Putin said on Wednesday that both leaders opposed any attempt to politicize sport and the Olympic movement, a criticism Russia has repeatedly levelled at the West.
Russia was found to have used a state backed doping programme at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and was banned from international competitions afterwards.
Russian athletes are allowed to compete as neutrals without the Russian flag or anthem if they prove their doping record is clean.
Russian officials, including Putin, are not allowed to attend international competitions unless invited by the head of state of the host country. Putin has been invited by Xi to attend.
Both China and Russia have seen their relationship with Western nations deteriorate in recent years and have tried to project a more unified front.
Putin told Xi on Wednesday that a new model of cooperation has been formed between our countries that includes a determination to turn our common border into a belt of peace and good-neighborliness. I consider these relations to be a real model for inter-state cooperation in the 21st century, the Russian leader said.
After the call, Yury Ushakov, the Kremlin's top foreign policy adviser, said that the conversation between the two great friendly states had lasted 90 minutes and was very positive. Both stated that the relationship had reached an unprecedented high level, he told reporters.
For weeks, the US and its allies have accused Russia of planning an invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbour Ukraine, warning of massive coordinated sanctions should Putin launch an attack.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian troops are stationed near Ukraine, where the West has accused the Kremlin of backing pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.
Russia rejects the allegations and blames the West for stoking tensions.
Putin said on Tuesday he wanted security talks with the United States and NATO to begin without delay, as he spoke to the leaders of France and Finland.
Russia demanded to stop NATO from expanding east and the deployment of weapons in neighbouring states, including Ukraine.
China's relationships with multiple Western allies have cratered over a number of issues in recent years - from trade and security to Beijing's human rights record and vows to seize Taiwan, which it claims.
China, an authoritarian one-party state, responded with fury after being left out of the Biden summit, branding US democracy a weapon of mass destruction Beijing's diplomats overseas and its state-controlled media ramped up a propaganda blitz criticising Western democracy as corrupt and a failure.
They advocated for whole-process people's democracy, aiming to shore up legitimacy for the ruling Communist Party, which has swung increasingly authoritarian under Xi.