Why does this matter? China gets more than 50% discount on LNG imports from Russia is a massive sign of Russian desperation and China putting the screws to them.
Russia isn’t doing this because they really like China. This shows they have no leverage or options at this point. The big picture of money coming in for Russia greatly affects their warfighting capability. This type of agreement is worth paying attention to.
Interesting, and it all flows though their Siberian pipeline. It would be a shame if some drones hit it…
One problem: who manufactures most of the spare parts for drones? China loves those gas prices, so they might dislike those who break pipes.
it’s not a great mystery whose side China is on in this conflict.
China doesn’t really pick sides. They pick what is good for China.
and owning siberia is good economically for them.
I get your point, but I have a nitpick. This is not about China or Russia but rather about Xi and Putin. It’s about their personal power and enrichment, what’s best for their countries or the people don’t matter to them.
Indeed, and Russia knows this. But hubris takes up a bigger part of their brutalist psyche than their fear of china at the moment
China sells spare parts to Ukraine. And we don’t want to change that.
I don’t think Ukraine is incentivized to run dangerous missions in Siberia to stop Russia from selling natural gas at a massive loss.
I’m not suggesting they should. I’m saying the fact Russia HAS to do this to get any income and kiss China’s ass screams of their massive weakness.
They just follow the money. What’s interesting is during that VJ day parade, all the media showed Xi meeting Putin. Little of it showed Xi meeting with the Serbian (EU) President who was also there, or the Slovakian (EU and NATO) Prime Minister who was there as well. Representatives from the UK and USA were also there.
Yep… they need chinese arms so bad
China is the one state actor that has the leverage to stop the two major wars if they wanted.
If that’s true, they aren’t stopping them because the wars benefit them. Russia being bogged down in Ukraine is giving them great leverage over the country as we can see from this news. Russia is no longer a serious power and instead a Chinese vassal. Iran on the other hand is bogging down the US and weighing on Trump’s popularity.
Well China, and trump, are more than happy to help Russia
Oh, I’m sure China will love that
