Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, trade with China has provided a lifeline to Russia’s heavily sanctioned economy. That could change. In August, US threats of secondary sanctions on banks doing business with Russia halted Chinese state banks’ transactions with Russian companies “en masse”, leaving payments worth billions of yuan in limbo. Russian government sources tell Reuters that Russian businesses have been forced to trade in gold with chains of intermediaries in third countries to get round compliance checks by Chinese banks. Chinese goods have so far prevented shortages in wartime Russia, and stabilised living standards. The two countries talk about a “no-limits partnership”. It may have limits after all. Related: Ukraine will stop transshipments of Russian gas across its territory from January. The suspicion is Russia will simply relabel its gas as coming from Azerbaijan.
