He compared it to 2014, noting that now “Russia is more dependent on China”.Ī decision to engage “in the next huge project with Russia while Russia is bombing Ukraine” would send a critical message about Beijing’s deepening ties with Moscow, said Tatiana Mitrova, a research fellow at the CGEP. “For the Chinese side, this could be a good opportunity,” said Moritz Rudolf, a research scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. Back then, Russia and China signed a deal for the Power of Siberia pipeline, offering Beijing a low-cost supply of gas. Russia’s urgent need to find buyers for its energy could play into China’s hands again during this visit, just as it did in 2014 when Moscow faced sanctions over its annexation of Crimea. John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said on Monday: “It’s a bit of a marriage of convenience, I’d say, less than it is of affection.” In Washington, the view is that Moscow and Beijing are “trying to check” the United States’ global influence. In January, Russia overtook Qatar, Turkmenistan and Australia to become China’s biggest gas supplier, delivering 2.7 billion cubic metres that month, according to Chinese customs data. With imports of microchips, 5G equipment and heavy industrial machinery now subject to US export controls, Russia has turned to Chinese manufacturers

Russia was China’s second-largest supplier of crude oil and coal, according to the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. Last year, China’s imports of Russian energy – which make up more than 40 per cent of the Kremlin’s budget revenue – grew from $52.8 billion to $81.3 billion. Western sanctions left Moscow with a $34 billion budget deficit in the first two months of this year alone as it increased military spending. While China’s help in weathering the effects of US sanctions is irreplaceable, Russia’s wealth of natural resources will secure Beijing’s continued support, the person added. Moscow sees its economic reliance on China as crucial to its prospects of winning the war, a person close to the Kremlin said. “It’s hard to hide the fact that Russia is now a junior partner.” “The sanctions have exacerbated the already asymmetrical relationship between Russia and China,” said Maria Shagina, a senior research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The Russian president hailed China’s economic model as “much more effective” than that of other countries, a recognition of the lifeline Beijing has extended since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year – with bilateral trade reaching a record $190 billion in 2022. It does not store any personal data.Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping placed their growing economic ties at the heart of talks in the Kremlin on Tuesday, highlighting Moscow’s dependence on Beijing after its economy was largely severed from the west. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Performance'.

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