Closer ties are being built in the cases of Russia-China, Russia-North Korea and China-North Korea. This is very reminiscent of the way the Entente was formed in decades and years before WWI, when Russia, France and the UK agreed to keep the then-nascent German expansionism in check. If the pathologically Russophobic London was able to find common ground with Moscow (or, to be precise, St. Petersburg back then), imagine the ease with which Russia, China and North Korea could form an Entente-like alliance.