Xi Offers Putin Political Relief With China State Visit

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to travel to China, the most powerful of his few remaining major allies, as both countries push back against the West on a range of issues.

The Russian leader will be in the country Thursday and Friday on a state visit following an invitation by his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, China's Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

The trip, Putin's first abroad since he began his fifth term in office last week, comes after Washington has committed tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine as it battles Russian forces. The U.S. also introduced sanctions against financial institutions seen as benefiting Russia's defense industrial base.

Putin and Xi are expected to sign several documents and discuss "the entire scope of issues pertaining to the Russia-China overarching partnership and strategic cooperation," according to a press release from Putin's office.

They will also "outline priorities for further practical cooperation between the two states and have an in-depth exchange of opinions on the most pressing international and regional issues," the statement added.

The two leaders will also attend a celebratory event marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and what was then the Soviet Union.

Beijing and Moscow have been projecting a united front against the U.S. and its allies in recent years. Xi and Putin declared a "no limits" partnership shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

And while China has positioned itself as neutral in the war, it has stifled criticism of Russia on social media. Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, pledged "dual opposition" to the West's "bloc-based" moves in the Asia-Pacific.

Newsweek reached out by email to the State Department and the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. for comment.

Amid crushing international sanctions over Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly reliant on Chinese trade and its currency, the yuan, to keep its economic engines going. These economic ties have been buffeted recently as the Biden administration has tightened the screws on the world's second-largest economy.

An increasing number of major Chinese banks have stopped accepting payments from Russian traders in recent months, in an apparent effort to dodge new U.S. secondary sanctions, Russian media have reported.

Meanwhile, while trade between China and Russia has soared over the past two years, Chinese exports to its ally dipped last month for the first time on an annual basis since the Ukraine war began, according to Chinese customs data.

In March, Putin coasted to his fifth term in the election, with 87 percent of the vote, according to Russia's election commission. The plebiscite received widespread international criticism for the lack of a meaningful opposition candidate and the coinciding crackdown on opposition voices.

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