17-10-23, 03:59
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#48
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Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: Desperate Putins' Struggle to Prop Up Ruble & China is Russias' Lifeline to Fund
Putin Makes Rare Admission of Struggle After New Attempt to Prop Up The Ruble
China is Russias' ONLY Lifeline as Desperate Putin Relies on Xi to Fund War in Ukraine - BUT Putin and Xi’s Bond Has a Weakness
Desperate Putin to Experience Severe Limitations This Winter as Ukraine Achieves Success
BBC 17 OCT 2023
HONG KONG, 17 Oct - Russian President Vladimir Putins’ expected meeting this week in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum will underscore a strengthening bilateral bond and increasing erosion of Moscows’ economic sovereignty.
Following their "no-limits" partnership outlined ahead of Russias’ invasion of Ukraine, the People’s Republic has been gorging on cheap Urals crude and sending more exports to its sanctions-hit neighbour. The $190 billion two-way trade relationship is up 29% since 2021, and has roughly doubled since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Moscow has few places to turn. The European Union’s decision in May 2022 to drastically reduce gas imports amounting to 155 billion cubic metres annually from Russia is depriving it of a major client. Europe has also stopped purchasing coal, seaborne crude and refined petroleum products worth nearly $80 billion a year, while also joining a U.S.-led price cap initiative that prevents operators from transporting Russian oil above a set price.
It was natural for the People’s Republic to step up. The country has bought Urals crude at a discount of between 10% and 13% against the price of Brent, the global benchmark for oil. Such discounts have allowed Beijing to save at least $10 billion on its energy bill from crude alone in 2022 and 2023, according to Bank of France estimates, easing some of the growing pressure on the yuan.
China has emerged as the top buyer of Russias’ crude oil and coal, as well as the second-largest buyer of liquefied natural gas and oil products from Russia, an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air shows.
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