China is gradually strengthening its political, economic, and technological influence over the Russian Federation, effectively absorbing it amid the sanctions pressure imposed on Russia because of its war against Ukraine.
This was stated by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Budanov recalled that already at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, it became clear that Russia was facing an acute shortage of electronic components, microchips, and controllers due to sanctions. To address this problem, as reported by the media, thousands of washing machines, various computers, and other devices began to be delivered from China to Russia.
At the same time, he noted that China was not directly selling these electronic components and microchips to Russia at that stage.
“Later, China realized how to take advantage of all this, while Russia, as the aggressor, found itself under even greater restrictions than before and began looking for ways out of the situation. It is quite obvious that through business channels, with, so to speak, tacit consent from the top, Russia found a reliable partner to ensure stable supply routes—primarily for electronic components, followed by machine tools and then various materials used to manufacture certain weapons components, and so on. In other words, this cooperation was intensifying. Russia paid enormous sums for this—far more than any country had previously paid for such goods—but it essentially had no other option,” Budanov said.
According to him, China then “began to exploit this situation” to generate excess profits and subsequently started expanding its political influence over Russia as well.
“There was an opportunity for extraordinary profits—simply enormous ones. After that came the political dimension: they began, so to speak, to exert even greater influence over the Russian Federation. The more sanctions and external pressure worked, the more Russia fell into China’s hands—something that everyone can now see quite openly,” the Head of the Presidential Office stated.
He noted that cooperation has now moved to a new level, with an exchange of military technologies taking place—specifically from Russia to China. Ultimately, a de facto absorption of Russia by China is occurring.
“China, by the way, has not transferred a single finished weapons system. No matter how we may feel about China—positively or negatively—it has not done so. Did it use this to enrich its own country—I mean China—and to strengthen its influence over the Russian Federation, and are they ultimately absorbing the Russian Federation? Yes, that is happening. It is painful for Russians to admit, but they know it too. They know it perfectly well,” Budanov said.
