Economic sanctions and the boycott of energy resources that the West has applied to Russia are making a dent. It was reported on Tuesday that profits of natural gas company Gazprom fell 41% after exports were practically halved and the Russian government introduced a tax to feed the state coffers. The $60 price cap for Russian oil agreed between the EU and the G7 is going, in the words of US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, “extremely well”. According to the International Energy Agency’s May report, Russian oil revenues for the previous month fell 27% compared to the same period last year, despite the increase in sales, particularly in Asian markets. In this context, Russia’s relationship with China – a “boundary friendship”, as their leaders vowed last year – is taking on the outline of a lifeline for Moscow. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s visit to Beijing will enable Chinese President Xi Jinping to boost bilateral relations to “a higher level” in “economic, trade and investment cooperation”, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mishustin praised Sino-Russian relations, describing them as “jointly responding to emerging threats related to the growing turmoil on the international scene and the illegitimate pressure of sanctions being exerted by the West”. But aside from the symbolic nature of having a country in China that does not condemn the invasion of Ukraine, the visit was mostly economic. The day before, the Russian delegation, including businessmen, participated in a business meeting in Shanghai. There, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak estimated the increase in energy supply to China in 2023 at 40%.
In Beijing, Premier Li Qiang stressed that bilateral trade reached $70 billion this year, an increase of more than 40%. By the end of the year, the $200 billion mark expected for 2024 should be passed. “Large-scale strategic projects are moving forward steadily,” said Li. After the talks, the ministers of both countries signed agreements on trade cooperation in services and sports, as well as patents and exports of Russian corn to China.
But Russia also wants access to technology and this was mentioned by Deputy Prime Minister Novak, when he said that both countries are discussing cooperation plans for “supplying missing technological equipment”. Economic sanctions target technology products, but also dual-use goods (civil or military) and the G7 summit, held in Japan this weekend, pledged to impose new sanctions and tighten loopholes so that existing ones are not circumvented .
secrets in court
Russian and Chinese news agencies are silent on the matter that could have somehow tainted the visit. According to Reuters, the director of the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of Siberia, Alexander Shiplyuk, is suspected of treason for allegedly passing confidential material at a scientific conference in China in 2017.
Shipliyuk, arrested in August, says he is innocent and that the information transferred was not secret and freely available. Two other scientists from the institute, all specialists in hypersonic missile technology, are also suspected of treason. Anatoly Maslov will begin his trial in June, a year after his arrest; and Valery Zvegintsev was arrested in April.
These arrests prompted their colleagues in Novosibirsk to sign an open letter of support, refuting the idea that the three might have passed on secrets. Three other scientists have been arrested in recent years on the same charge of sending secret materials to China. Two of them are now deceased, the other is serving a prison sentence of seven and a half years.
Faced with accusations that Beijing is luring Russian scientists into acquiring technology, the foreign ministry replied to Reuters that Sino-Russian relations are based on “non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-approach”.
Anti-Putin militias show up
In northern Ukraine, not far from the border with Russia, journalists were presented with the two anti-Putin Russian armed groups that raided Russia’s Belgorod region on Monday. Moscow said it had liquidated about 70 “Ukrainian nationalists”, but the leader of the group of volunteers, Denis Kapustin, along with three dozen men said only two militants suffered minor injuries. “The operation is underway. We consider the first phase a success,” said Kapustin.
Linked to the far right, he described members of his group as right-wing conservatives and traditionalists. Hours earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured that the military would respond “extremely harshly” to the militiamen’s actions. His rival Yevgeny Prigozhin has again criticized the armed forces and is now pointing the finger at the issue of border defence. The owner of the Wagner mercenary company revealed that he brought 50,000 prisoners to the war front, of whom about 10,000 died.
Source: DN
