Sébastien Le Belzic, edited by Mélanie Faure
The war in Ukraine is increasingly isolating Russia on the international scene from an economic point of view. The sanctions are starting to take effect and the Russians are unlikely to be able to count on the Chinese to provide them with financial support, as the regime fears US sanctions.
Economic sanctions go up a notch for Russia. And faced with this threat, the federal state will not be able to count on its faithful Chinese ally. Chinese banks will have to comply with international sanctions and no longer lend to the country, or even finance purchases of Russian hydrocarbons.
The Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest bank in the world, has stopped issuing dollar-denominated letters of credit for purchases of Russian gas and oil. A huge blow for Moscow.
“China does not approve of the use of sanctions”
According to information from Europe 1, the four main Chinese state banks and their subsidiaries abroad will also close the taps of credit, as they have already done following the sanctions targeting Iran or North Korea. . This is the reason why, again on Monday, the spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy spoke out violently against the very principle of sanctions, declaring: “China does not approve of the use of sanctions and is even more opposed to unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law. Practice has long proven that it does not solve problems.”
ICBC’s Moscow branch alone has almost $1 billion in assets there. From now on, only exchanges denominated in Chinese Yuans could escape the sanctions. But Washington is asking Chinese banks to put a definitive end to their operations with Russia.