After Sanctions Russia Looks East

As the United States and Europe threaten Russia with trade sanctions, Moscow is looking east to Asian countries that might act as an economic bulwark.
The Kremlin’s calculations rely heavily on China — already the second largest importer of Russian goods and a voracious energy consumer.

Increased Russian reliance on China would be helped along by a thaw in relations between Moscow and Beijing in recent decades. The countries share a border, often team up on U.N. Security Council votes and frequently trade military equipment.
Should the West pursue new sanctions to isolate Russia — possibly in response to further incursions into Ukraine — those ties will be put to the test. Moscow could also widen the search for support to Japan and India.

Energy supplies are likely to feature prominently in any shift to the East.
Russia sends more than 7 million barrels of oil a day to the world markets, and its total energy trade earns 70% of its $515 billion in annual export revenue, according to the U.S. Energy information Administration.
It has long pursued a natural gas deal with China, but a final agreement between state-owned behemoths Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp has been delayed by a disagreement over pricing.

via CNN

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza