China Secures Massive Discount on Russian Gas as Moscow’s Leverage Weakens

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.