The conflict between Russia and Ukraine can be said to have shattered Russia's illusions about the West, brought China and Russia closer and closer, and many projects that had been shelved for a long time or even impossible to achieve have been implemented, but sometimes Russia is still confused in major matters. China is reluctant to invest in the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, making Russia pay in full billions of dollars for its construction, and demanding discounts on Russian gas.
Next year, China's discount will increase to 46%, and gas from the Power of Siberia ** will be 271 per thousand cubic meters6 USD, compared to 481 for Turkey and Europe***7 dollars. He noted that China did not believe that this was enough, and demanded that the discount continue to be increased and that Russia bear the full cost of the pipeline.
The pipeline scheme in China, which enters from Xinjiang, has a shorter route, and there are no middlemen, and we are not willing to undercut the price and are happy to bear the cost of the pipeline. But the Russian side did not agree, so there was a dispute. Russia's plan is to transit through Mongolia, since it has to take the Mongolian line, then Russia wants to build according to the plan, it must be Russia's own money, to find us a middleman, unstable gas source, we are not to blame for the price. Moreover, the Sino-Russian natural gas contract is a long-term contract of "pay-or-pay", and the cooperation period is between 10 and 30 years, so it is very reasonable for Russia to pay for the construction of the pipeline on its own.
Russia is sometimes really not sober in strategic decision-making, and after the ban on Russian energy in Europe, Gazprom lost up to one trillion rubles for the whole year and faced a huge funding gap. Before the conflict, there were 2 trillion rubles in "cash reserves", and after the conflict (July) only 700 billion rubles remained. After the conflict, Russia's natural gas exports to China have skyrocketed, which has ensured Russia's energy revenue to a certain extent, and China's energy gap has also been filled, which is a win-win situation for the two countries. If a new pipeline is not built as soon as possible, there will be nowhere to deliver a large amount of Russian natural gas, and you will still have to count what situation you are in.
So it's not us who is in a hurry, it's Russia. Although some people have bad intentions to stir up Sino-Russian relations, there is no such thing as a bilateral relationship without disputes at all, and win-win cooperation between China and Russia is still the main theme at present, and only by getting close to each other can the interests be maximized, and I believe that Russia will figure this out.