1: Some background from me for the Xi trip to Moscow, where I expect Beijing to reinforce an entente that is both unsentimental and directed largely at shared ambivalence about (1) US foreign policy, (2) tools of US statecraft, e.g., sanctions, and (3) backfooting Washington.

🎙️🎧 What does Putin-Xi summit tell about trajectory of 🇨🇳🇷🇺 relations? I’m unpacking it in new episode of Carnegie Politika podcast with Gavekal’s Yanmei Xie & Control Risks’ Vita Spivak, who is back to Carnegie Endowment as a non-resident senior fellow. Tune in! carnegieendowment.org/politika/89373

Podcast: What’s Behind Xi Jinping’s Visit to Moscow? Why now? Did both sides get what they wanted from the visit? Has Russia resigned itself to being the junior partner in the relationship? Alexander Gabuev 陳寒士 Yanmei Xie & Vita Spivak discuss 🇨🇳🇷🇺 relations: carnegieendowment.org/politika/89373

/1 In celebration of the launch of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, we’re highlighting the scholars who will be spearheading the important work and research of the center. 🧵Learn more about our Berlin-based team:

With pressure from sanctions building for Russia, it's increasingly difficult for Chinese businesses to keep flying under the sanctions radar. Vita Spivak writes via Carnegie Politika: carnegieendowment.org/politika/89785

Brilliant investigation by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project DER SPIEGEL & Важные истории on how sanctioned goods from 🇨🇳&🇪🇺 end up in 🇷🇺 tinyurl.com/252tnxjd

Folks, Central Asian countries have not been “Russian vassals for 30 years,” they did not exchange Russian “vassalage” for Chinese “vassalage,” China is not new to the region, they do face challenges from landlockedness and developmental but they have interests and agency. Stop.

I had lunch in Dubai with Russia’s richest man, who talked about why he doesn’t feel responsible for the war in Ukraine, why sanctions on agriculture oligarchs are like the Hiroshima bombing, and why “the time of troubles won’t be limited to Russia” on.ft.com/3PiJKdg

My colleague Andrei Kolesnikov and Левада-Центр's Denis Volkov have published a new Carnegie Endowment paper documenting Russian attitudes towards the war. Main conclusion: support for the Kremlin's disastrous course is undiminished. Key findings in a🧵1/ carnegieendowment.org/2023/11/28/alt…

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As a result of deepening Western sanctions targeting 🇷🇺metals, including trading at London Metal Exchange (LME), Russian companies have no other long-term strategy as to integrate more into 🇨🇳 market on Beijing's terms, my colleague Vita Spivak argues in Carnegie Politika. carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia…