Russian alignment with Asia to be fixed foreign policy: Duowei

Russia is abandoning its strategy of aligning itself with the West in favor of becoming a part of the East, according to a commentary from Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet.

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This push towards Asia and the abandoning of the “Western path” has been spurred by Russia’s nationalist scholars such as political scientist Alexander Dugin, believed to be an important influence on President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy. Dugin, who founded and heads Russia’s Eurasia Movement, has long envisioned a strategic bloc that would join the former Soviet Union to Middle Eastern countries, including Iran.

China reaps harvest from Russia sanctions

China is gaining an edge in energy deals with Russia as Moscow faces sanctions pressure from the conflict in Ukraine.

The latest energy accords announced in Beijing on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit suggest that China is increasing its access to Russian resources while resisting demands for more favorable financial terms.

At a signing ceremony on November 9, Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin sealed a memorandum of understanding for a second Siberian gas pipeline on a western route that Russia has promoted unsuccessfully for years.

The preliminary commitment to the project known as the Altai pipeline, named for a remote Russian border region, follows an agreement in May on an eastern Siberian gas line to supply China’s coastal cities and industrial northeast.