https://www.newsweek.com/russia-china-xi-putin-oil-gas-1907475
China will not pay the prices for Russia’s natural gas in the quantities that Vladimir Putin needs to make up for the European market he lost after his invasion of Ukraine, the Russian president’s former deputy energy minister has told Newsweek.
“It’s quite clear that Russia cannot make any profits by exporting gas to China,” Vladimir Milov, who served in the role between May and October 2002 during Putin’s first presidential term and is now an opposition figure abroad, said.
He said the prospect that Gazprom, one of the world’s largest publicly listed natural gas companies, can remain a prime revenue generator for Russia’s economy and Putin’s military machine is “pretty much dead now.”
Putin has touted his close ties with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and the leaders’ meeting last month follows trade between the countries hitting a record $240 billion last year—up by more than a quarter from 2022.
But Beijing is striking a hard bargain on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline linking the Chinese market to gas fields in western Russia that had supplied Europe, a project Moscow hoped would offset the lucrative market which has mostly disappeared.
俄罗斯总统前能源部副部长告诉《新闻周刊》，中国不会支付普京为弥补其入侵乌克兰后失去的欧洲市场而需要的俄罗斯天然气价格。
弗拉基米尔·米洛夫说，“很明显，俄罗斯无法通过向中国出口天然气赚取任何利润。”他在 2002 年 5 月至 10 月期间担任该职务，当时普京担任第一届总统，现在是国外反对派人物。
他说，作为全球最大的上市天然气公司之一，俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司继续成为俄罗斯经济和普京军事机器主要收入来源的希望“现在几乎已经破灭”。
普京一直吹嘘他与中国国家主席习近平的密切关系，上个月的领导人会晤是在两国去年贸易额创下 2400 亿美元纪录之后举行的，比 2022 年增长了四分之一以上。
但北京方面正在就西伯利亚力量二号管道提出大幅杀价要求。该管道连接中国市场与俄罗斯西部供应欧洲的天然气田，莫斯科希望该项目能够弥补这个利润丰厚、已基本消失的市场。
