Putin/Xi
Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's President Xi Jinping make a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023.
  • Russian imports of Chinese cars rocketed 543% in the first half, local media reported. 
  • Russia now gets 70% of its imported cars from China, compared with just 10% prior to the Ukraine war.
  • That highlights Russia's growing economic dependency on China – thanks to Moscow's deepening from the West.

Russia's deepening economic and political isolation from the West is dramatically reshaping its business and consumer landscape.

The biggest theme to emerge amid Moscow's struggles with Western sanctions, slapped in response to its war on Ukraine, is probably the Eurasian nation's growing economic dependency on China – for everything from selling oil to buying consumer goods.