Russia's attempts to conclude an agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline with China have reached a dead end due to Beijing's unreasonable demands regarding the price and volume of supplies.
Why Putin has become more dependent on Chinese leader Xi Jinping
As the publication notes, China has demanded to pay prices close to Russian domestic prices, which are heavily subsidized and is committed to buying only a small part of the pipeline's planned annual capacity of 50 billion cubic meters.
Beijing's tough stance on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline underscores that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made dictator Vladimir Putin increasingly dependent on Chinese leader Xi Jinping for economic support, the publication writes.
The pipeline deal was one of the top three requests Putin made of Xi during their meeting last month, the people said, along with expanding Chinese banks' presence in Russia and for China to ignore a peace conference being hosted by Ukraine this month.
Shares of Russian Gazprom fell sharply
The revenues of the Russian energy company Gazprom, significantly reduced by the loss of the European market, will continue to fall until at least 2030.
Note that in 2023, the Russian company pumped about 69 billion cubic meters to customers — the minimum volume since 1985. Compared to 2022 (100.9 billion cubic meters), which has already become the worst for the Russian company in its entire history, the volume of gas pumping has decreased by a third.
