Vita Spivak is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. She is an expert on China and worked as the 2015-2018 Program Coordinator for the Russia in the Asian Pacific Program at the former-Carnegie Moscow Center.
She holds a BA in Chinese History from Moscow State University, and an MA in Economics from Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas. She also holds an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford.
While few Chinese companies have left Russia, and some have even increased their presence following the exodus of Western firms, even state-owned enterprises are finding it increasingly difficult to keep flying under the sanctions radar.
Why did Xi Jinping choose to visit Moscow at a time when Russia has been ostracized by the global community for its invasion of Ukraine? Did both sides get what they wanted from the visit? Podcast host Alexander Gabuev is joined by Yanmei Xie, a geopolitics analyst at Gavekal Research, and Vita Spivak, an analyst at Control Risks and non-resident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Following Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Moscow, this episode of the podcast is devoted to the ever-evolving relationship between Russia and China.
What are the key drivers and obstacles in Sino-Russian economic cooperation? How badly does China need Russian commodities exports? Is Russia concerned about China’s growing geoeconomic clout, and does it have any alternatives? Join Alexander Gabuev, Vita Spivak and Jiayi Zhou to explore these issues and more.
China’s energy infrastructure is simply not yet ready for Beijing’s concerted efforts to curb emissions, which opens up new opportunities for Russian hydrocarbon exporters.
Testing the possibilities of internationalizing the Chinese currency in Russia is a tempting prospect for both Beijing and Moscow, but agreements on paper simply aren’t enough to change reality.
While U.S.-China and U.S.-Russia relations have steadily deteriorated, China-Russia cooperation has grown in its stead. Paul Haenle will moderate a discussion on recent developments in China-Russia relations and their implications for the United States.
As Russia becomes increasingly pulled into China’s tech orbit, the Rubicon will be the Kremlin’s final decision on whether to use Chinese or Western technology to develop 5G networks in Russia—and currently Chinese companies look like the favorites.
Russia can’t compete with China in terms of their influence in Africa, so Moscow’s attempts to make inroads there do not alarm Beijing. But as China asserts itself in the role of the major power in Africa, Moscow’s dual influence (such as selling weapons to different sides of a conflict in the same country) could become an impediment to stabilization.
Russia is not the only country in whose forestry industry the Chinese are active. Chinese businesses’ behavior largely depends on the degree of control exercised by the local authorities, and forestry is a great illustration of this.
