Russia leans on China and India amid the Ukraine crisis. Inside Putin's strategic alliances

Since the war broke out in 2022, China has become one of the largest purchasers of Russian oil, funds from which are helping finance the Ukraine invasion. President Vladimir Putin has also secured international agreements with several other countries: Belarus, Iran, India, and several African nations.

Russia and Iran have progressively grown closer, even integrating their banking systems to avoid Western sanctions. Furthermore, Putin has ramped up his cooperation with India.

Anton Heraszczenko announced on Platform X (previously known as Twitter), an advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, that Russia and India have made significant progress in discussions concerning joint military equipment production.

Following talks with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about these developments - notes the Reuters agency.

Lavrov stated that such strategic collaboration serves the interests of both nations and will aid in ensuring security on the Eurasian continent.

Lavrov also conceded that Moscow respects India's effort to diversify military equipment suppliers and is prepared to support New Delhi's initiative to manufacture necessary items domestically.

While cooperation with India is growing, Russia's critical business operations are still mainly with China. In the first nine months of this year alone, the trade turnover between Russia and China swelled by 29.5 percent, amounting to 176.4 billion dollars. The exports from China to Russia were worth 81.4 billion dollars, signifying an increase of 56.9 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.