The Kovykta natural gas condensate field, known as the largest gas field in eastern Russia, was officially put into operation. At the same time, the Kovykta-Chayanda section of the natural gas pipeline was also officially put into operation. This announced that the " Siberian Power" natural gas pipeline cooperated by China and Russia has been fully connected and has begun to provide natural gas to China.
Regarding this Sino-Russian cooperation project, Putin attended the opening ceremony via video and gave the project great importance. In a video speech, Putin said that the commissioning of the natural gas project will inject strong impetus into the development of Siberia. At the same time, Russia will also have a stable supply capacity to provide energy to foreign partners.
Obviously, this foreign partner refers to China. The reason why Putin takes it so seriously is largely due to the fact that US and Western sanctions have blocked Russian energy exports, so Russia has to find new partners, thus sending a more positive signal for energy exports to China.
Putin
In fact, the construction of the "Power of Siberia" pipeline began in September 2014. This time is extremely special, because just 6 months ago, Crimea was surrendered to Russia. At this time, Russia had realized that the United States and Western countries would definitely impose sanctions on Russia, and began to prepare in advance and actively promoted a strategic U-turn to "look east." However, due to European obstruction, the U.S. sanctions against Russia did not involve Russian energy exports, so the construction of this gas pipeline to China did not seem so urgent. During the intermittent construction, the pipeline was finally partially completed in 2019. Until the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, the gas pipeline was not completed. However, after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, the "Power of Siberia" pipeline became a key project for Russia's future energy exports to China and a key project for Russia to obtain funds. As a result, the construction speed began to accelerate, and all construction work was completed as quickly as possible.
After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, Russia not only accelerated this project, but also accelerated almost all Sino-Russian cooperation projects. As early as the Eastern Economic Forum held in September this year, Putin asked Russia to activate the Transbaikalsk railway grain hub and accelerate the construction of the China-Russia "New Grain Land Corridor" reached by China and Russia in 2016.
"Power of Siberia" pipeline
Furthermore, from wide-body passenger aircraft cooperation projects to railway cooperation, from natural gas agreements to oil trade, one economic agreement after another has been implemented rapidly. According to data released by China Customs, from January to November this year, bilateral trade between China and Russia has exceeded 172 billion US dollars, of which China's exports to Russia increased by 13.4%, and China's imports from Russia surged by 47.5%. This is the result of accelerated cooperation between China and Russia. Because Russia's exports to Europe have been frustrated, Russia has to find new markets to absorb Russia's "resource productivity."
Not only that, the United States and Western countries continue to increase their efforts in the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict". NATO 27 countries have provided military support to Ukraine for more than 97 billion U.S. dollars, which has exceeded the total cost of the weapons left by the United States on the Afghan plateau. In order to find the last straw to overwhelm Russia, the United States even wants to launch a special spending plan to provide Ukraine with an additional $45 billion in emergency assistance in the future, on top of the $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
This also means that if Russia wants to continue fighting in the Ukrainian battlefield and win the final victory, it must continue to increase investment in the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield. However, if Russia continues to bet, the Russian economy will encounter a crisis. After all, Russia's economic size is far behind that of the United States and the West. What's more, Russia is still under containment and sanctions by the United States and the West. The Russian economy can be said to be under great pressure, and the lives of the Russian people have also been affected to a certain extent.
Russian-Ukrainian conflict
In order to support the "special military operations" against Ukraine, Russia needs to spend more than 300 million US dollars every day.As Russia's momentum in the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to weaken, and the United States and the West continue to increase their influence, after Russia has experienced partial mobilization, Sweden, , Norway and other neutral countries have trotted all the way into the arms of NATO, and Russia was forced to respond to the declaration. On the basis of expanding the army by 300,000 people, Bu once again expanded the number of Russian troops from 1.15 million to 1.5 million. The expansion of the army also means that the Russian finance will add more budgets to meet military expenditures. Russia's weak economy does seem to be somewhat inadequate.
Although Russia is now self-sufficient in weapons, drone technology, which has always been regarded as Russia's weak link, can also be imported from countries such as Iran Turkey . But what crushed Russia was most likely not the poor performance of the Russian military in the war, but Russia's economic problems and government financial problems. So what is Russia's most urgent need now? We know very well that the rapid increase in Sino-Russian trade volume is the most direct response.
Oil
The reason why these problems were not reflected in the early stages of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is because the "OPEC+" organization did not cooperate with the United States' oil production increase plan, resulting in international oil prices remaining at a high level. This also indirectly gave Russia the ability to support its battlefield military expenditures despite its own economic sluggishness. Western data shows that as long as the international oil price is below 90 US dollars per barrel, Russia's finances may quickly dry up at a speed visible to the naked eye. If the war continues, we are likely to see this next year. Therefore, before that, Russia must choose a reliable strategic partner to digest the resources produced by Russia and provide assistance to the Russian economy, knowing that the West cannot lift sanctions on Russia.
As for how to solve economic problems, Russia does not have many choices. There are only two options: one is India and the other is China. Although India has made a lot of money by reselling Russian oil, this is not a long-term solution after all. It is impossible to feed Russia just by relying on India's domestic market demand. Furthermore, although India has maintained friendly relations with Russia for 70 years, this is the result of both sides getting what they need. Today's Indian strategy is to maintain a balance between the United States and Russia. In addition, India likes to engage in political speculation, so India cannot really support Russia unconditionally. At the beginning of this month, Indian Prime Minister Modi directly refused to hold a meeting with Putin because the two sides had different views on the "Russian-Ukrainian war." This shows that India does not want to get too close to Russia and hopes to please the United States and the West through this move and try to maintain a balance between the United States and Russia.
China-Russia relations
So Russia has only one choice left, and that is China. After all, China and Russia have close relations. China has built the world's largest manufacturing industry in the past few decades, and its demand for energy is huge. As a major energy exporting country, Russia is highly complementary to each other. China's huge market can not only absorb Russia's energy production capacity , but the geographical proximity of China and Russia also facilitates more cooperation.
Although there has always been a view that a strong Russia standing to the north of China is not a good thing, a weak Russia is even more detrimental to us, especially in today's grand strategic environment where the United States and the West seek to contain and suppress China.
The trigger of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is actually the result of NATO's fifth eastward expansion driven by the United States, and it is also the United States' conspiracy against Russia. When Russia fights, it relies on strength to bully the weak, and imposes various sanctions, and Russia is in dire straits; if Russia does not fight, NATO will take the opportunity to complete the final "encirclement" of Russia. Russia's geopolitics will be devastated, and Russia will be unable to recover. It can no longer pose a threat to the hegemony of the United States, whether politically or militarily.
The United States and Russia confront
Therefore, whether Russia fights or not, the United States and Western countries can achieve the political goal of completely weakening or even disintegrating Russia. This is why Putin said at the military meeting that the conflict with Ukraine is inevitable. Unless Russia waits to be dismembered by the United States, it will only be sooner or later for the Russia-Ukraine conflict to break out.
In addition, we know that the reason why the United States wants to quickly solve Russia is to solve the geopolitical problems that exist in Europe and free up its hands to contain China. After all, European and American countries are consistent in terms of "universal values." Although many countries do not want to side with the United States for the sake of money, they still will not object to the U.S. strategy of containing China. Therefore, as long as the United States settles Russia, it is equivalent to settling Europe, and the rest is to contain China.
China has become the world's second largest economy, and its military power has almost no rivals in the Western Pacific. The United States does not have the ability to target Russia and confront China at the same time. So the best way is to solve one side first and then focus on solving the other side.
Therefore, as far as China's national interests are concerned, we must not sit back and watch Russia be weakened. After all, after Russia falls, it will be our turn next. There is an idiom called "the lips are dead and the teeth are cold". Although it is not completely appropriate when used here, it can also describe the current strategic relationship between China and Russia. This is one of the reasons why the bilateral trade between China and Russia has grown rapidly this year.
