China Now Supplies 90% of Russia's Sanctioned Tech
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- Russia's goods exports to China have nearly doubled since February 2022, reaching roughly $129 billion in 2024 — overwhelmingly crude oil, coal, and natural gas sold at steep discounts.
- China has purchased more than €319 billion ($372 billion) of Russian fossil fuels since the Ukraine war began, providing the hard currency that funds Moscow's military despite Western sanctions.
- Chinese suppliers accounted for roughly 90% of Russia's sanctioned technology imports in 2025 (up from 80% the prior year), including machine tools, drones, satellite imagery, and earth observation intelligence that sustain Russian weapons production.
- Russia and China were settling over 99% of bilateral trade in rubles and yuan by late last year, a de-dollarization shift that has left Russia facing occasional yuan shortages, higher borrowing costs, and Beijing's upper hand in negotiations.
- Putin is expected to push for the long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which could deliver up to 50 billion cubic meters annually to China via Mongolia but remains stalled over pricing disputes.
- The Putin-Xi summit comes days after Trump's high-profile Beijing visit, with analysts noting a US-China thaw would reduce Beijing's incentive to fully align with Russia against the West.
Why it matters: Russia has gone from self-described 'no-limits' partner to economic client of Beijing: 90% of its sanctioned tech flows from China, nearly all bilateral trade is in rubles and yuan, and every new pipeline Moscow wants to build runs through Beijing's priorities. That asymmetry hands China effective veto power over Russia's war economy and diplomatic choices at a moment when US-China ties are being stabilized.
