Authored by Eurasianet via OilPrice,
- Russian government projections show China paying approximately 56% less for Russian natural gas than other foreign customers outside the former Soviet Union in 2026.
- Chinese companies are advancing major copper, port infrastructure, energy, and technology initiatives across Central Asia.
- Beijing is strengthening its regional influence through investments, digital connectivity, and partnerships with Central Asian governments.
Russia is giving China a huge discount on natural gas purchases, underscoring the Kremlin's fiscal dependency on Beijing. The Moscow Times (MT), citing Russian Duma documentation, shows that China will pay an average of approximately $248 per thousand cubic meters of pipeline gas in 2026, compared with $562 for Gazprom's other foreign customers outside the former Soviet Union.
That means Beijing is receiving as much as a 56 percent discount on its purchase price. The steep discount appears to be the cost of Beijing's ongoing political support for the Kremlin's war effort in Ukraine.
Given the Western sanctions regime and the European Union's efforts to reduce its reliance on Russian gas, China's purchases are a crucial source of funds needed to keep Russia's war machine going. Russia hopes to reduce the discounts in the coming years, according to the MT report. To put Russia's weak negotiating position into context, an estimate published by Carnegie's Russia Eurasia Center showed 
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