While European countries are making efforts to become independent from them hydrocarbons his energy-rich neighbor, Russia uses its alternatives to compensate for the loss of customers from Europe. And, of course, her alternatives have a lot to do with her. Chinawhich also has relatively strong incentives to tighten trade relations with Russia.

Over the past year, the Biden administration has blacklisted a number of Chinese companies that it has embargoed, banning the export of American high technology to virtually all of them and forbidding American companies from doing business with them. In response, China greatly expanded trade with Russia, opening two permanent bridges for the first time to facilitate bilateral trade across the river at the border of the two countries. China’s state media even trumpeted that and bilateral trade, which reached $1.28 trillion last year. yuan, equivalent to $190 billion. This hefty amount corresponds to a 30 percent increase in bilateral trade compared to 2021 levels. Much of the increase is due to Chinese industries rushing to take advantage of the situation and absorb as much Russian oil and coal as they could low prices that Russia was now offering.

Last year, trade between Russia and China reached $190 billion.

Since December 5, when the $60 ceiling on Russian oil sales by the G7 countries came into force, China, which is not a party to the relevant agreement, continues to buy Russian oil. However, according to oil negotiators, he buys it at a deep discount, so the final price he pays is not much off the ceiling. Estimates converge on a price of around $68 per barrel. After all, since Beijing has not introduced quotas for them, the country’s independent oil refiners are feverishly importing Russian oil. After all, they are buying the mixture offered by countries like Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, which mix Russian oil with oil from other countries and present it under a different name so that both European tankers and European insurance companies can be used. This blend of oils of various origins is typically sold at a discount of at least five dollars below the price of Brent on the ICE platform. Over the past year, Chinese oil imports from Russia more than doubled to 3.1 million tons, with 554,000 tons of fuel imported in October alone.

Meanwhile, Russia makes extensive use of China’s currency, the yuan, which offers it a way out and also allows its partner to even marginally promote the use of its currency abroad. Since most of its foreign exchange reserves are “frozen”, Moscow has no other foreign currency that it can widely use for purchases. Thus, the latest figures for December bring Russia’s reserves in yuan to 310 billion, which corresponds to a total of $46 billion.