After Russia launched its war against Ukraine in February 2022, the West's harsh sanctions and diplomatic isolation forced Moscow to seek alternative partners. In this situation, China emerged as the most favorable ally. Beijing, also being in competition with the US and the West, began to expand cooperation with Moscow.
However, according to experts, these relations are characterized more by cooperation born out of necessity than by a strategic alliance.
Political scientist Elkhan Shahinoglu, speaking to Modern.az, stated that Russia's dependence on China has increased in the last 3-4 years:
"After Russia started the war in Ukraine, the West began to impose sanctions on it. Consequently, Russia cannot acquire Western high technologies or sell its oil and gas to the West. For this reason, our northern neighbor has chosen China as its main market. Russia's dependence on China has increased in the last 3-4 years. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is different; it was established earlier. Both states are trying to strengthen integration both among themselves and within the organization. Their common goal is to eliminate a unipolar world and gather more partners. Azerbaijan also shows interest in this organization. However, our interest and goal in the organization is not to be part of an alliance against the West. Our main goal in integrating into the SCO is to strengthen economic cooperation and enhance the use of Azerbaijan's transport capabilities by member states. Looking at it this way, the main destination for our transport routes is China. China needs to increase its cargo transportation so that the cargo traffic of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and, in the future, the Zangezur corridor increases. Otherwise, Azerbaijan does not and will not take part in Russia's and China's anti-Western, anti-US policy".
He noted that as long as Russia wages war against Ukraine, its relations with the West will remain poor, and its dependence on China will persist:
"China, in fact, does not want the war to end and does not even hide this. The Chinese Foreign Minister recently openly stated in his speech that if the war ends, the US will start acting harshly towards China. It implied that the US should remain preoccupied with the Russia-Ukraine war. From this, it clearly follows that China is interested in the continuation of the war. For this reason, Russia also has a dependence on the Chinese market. Even after the war ends, Russia and China will likely continue these relations. Because the relations of both China and Russia with the West are not expected to normalize in the coming years. During the Cold War, relations between the USSR and China were cold. But after the collapse of the USSR, as Russia's independence was not smooth, it began to draw closer to China".
