Xi Jinping exploits Putin's growing dependence, analyst says

He shared these remarks on Espreso TV.

“I have the feeling that Beijing has clearly picked up on Putin’s recent stunt toward the U.S. At some point, he wanted to slip out from under Xi’s umbrella and melt into Trump’s embrace — but that didn’t work out. And now Beijing sees Putin’s particular moment of weakness and his growing dependence on China. 

It’s well known that China hasn’t just been quietly subsidizing the war: trade between Beijing and Moscow has run a surplus of $30 billion in Russia’s favor. That means Beijing has deliberately been buying up all sorts of odd products from Russia just to help prop up Russia’s balance of payments during the war. So to say that Xi bears no responsibility for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine — on the contrary, he absolutely does,” the political analyst emphasized.

According to Tsybulko, the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine has left Russia extremely weak. Xi wants to absorb all of Russia, irreversibly, turning it into a resource colony without any agency of its own. And when it comes to Nord Stream 2, we know perfectly well that even Nord Stream 1 was a money-losing project for Russia — China didn’t invest a cent, since it was all built with Russian money. China buys gas at laughably low prices and still complains to Russia that it doesn’t get domestic rates like Belarus does.

“Beijing has sensed one very important moment — the European Union has announced a complete ban on importing Russian gas and oil to EU countries. And now, Beijing has come to catch Putin off guard,” Tsybulko concluded.

• On Thursday, May 8, talks took place in the Kremlin between Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.