West pushes crippling sanctions on Russia's oil industry despite Ukraine ceasefire

President Vladimir Putin is turning to China to buttress the economy, reaching a $400bn deal on a gas pipeline in May and opening Russia’s oil fields to Chinese investors for the first time. Moscow and Beijing agreed this week to build a huge port on Russia’s Pacific coast.

Yet China cannot yet plug the technology gap and is driving a very hard bargain on oil and gas deals. “Putin needs China for his domestic political narrative, but those in the business know that Russia has few alternatives to the West,” said Ian Bond, a former ambassador to Latvia and now at the Centre for European Reform.