Kremlin announces new meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping

This was reported by the AP and Russian propaganda media.

According to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, Putin and Xi will first have a conversation in a large group, and then in a small group, during a working breakfast.

"It is possible that the leaders will also have a one-on-one conversation even outside this narrow group," he said.

Ushakov also said that a delegation of high-ranking officials and entrepreneurs will travel from Russia to China.

Putin plans to take part in the Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road forum, where he will promote the concept of the so-called Greater Eurasia.

“Russia is a safe neighbor that is friendly, that is a source of cheap raw materials, that’s a support for Chinese initiatives on the global stage and that’s also a source of military technologies, some of those that China doesn’t have,” Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, was quoted by AP as saying.

“For Russia, China is its lifeline, economic lifeline in its brutal repression against Ukraine,” Gabuev told The Associated Press.

“It’s the major market for Russian commodities, and is also the major source of sophisticated technological imports, including dual-use goods that go into the Russian military machine,” he added.