China-Russia energy trade

Will China cut fossil fuels – a key part of its partnership with Russia – in favor of the new climate milestone?

The leaders of China and Russia defiantly stood shoulder-to-shoulder even as Chinese renewables pose major risks to the bilateral relationship. 

The proposed pipeline has astonishingly poor project economics. It might be built regardless. 

Beijing and Moscow are more likely to cooperate in liquefied natural gas and Central Asian natural gas, not the Power of Siberia-2 pipeline.

A U.S. blockade of Russian maritime crude oil exports to China is feasible, but would be extremely unwise outside of wartime or near-wartime conditions. 

With the exit of European partners and buyers, Russia is looking to China and India to get its Arctic energy projects off the ground. 

The consistency and reliability of Asian buyers of Russian oil, LNG, and coal are the most important factor granting Moscow strategic space in the face of Western mobilization.

Russia’s rising energy trade with Asia – including China and India – masks underlying problems, including artificially low prices and maxed-out infrastructure.

China’s mixed signals on the Ukraine crisis extend to the economic realm, long a weak point for Sino-Russia ties.

China’s economic maturation into a consumer economy is a gut punch to Russia’s economic model.

20 years ago, Putin flipped Russia's entire strategic orientation on its head. Is he ready to do so again?