The rulers of the world’s largest nation – and its second largest economy – are not bothered by human rights violations, which Putin must find comforting. China, from Putin’s point of view, is the last global power to criticize him for his aggressive policies and assault on democracy. He needs such an ally for the sake to avoid being totally isolated.

The economic benefits are impressive also. China will pay as much as $400 billion for 30 years of gas supplies and substantial amount of this money comes up front, which makes Russia much less vulnerable to Western sanctions.

No European Union participation in the South Stream pipeline? Fine, Russia will have enough money to invest in it, at least at this point.

No Western energy companies interested in drilling the Black Sea shelf near Crimea? Not a catastrophe anymore as Russia will be able to cover the necessary expenses.

There has been a lot of discussion in the world media whether Putin made a decision to occupy Crimea in order to get a control over peninsula’s energy resources. I do not think it was the main reason. It was a factor, although not as strong as the fact that many Russians sincerely dream about restoration of the Soviet Union or, at least, some part of it.

But Putin’s propaganda machine will definitely use the energy argument in its attempts to explain the benefits of occupying Crimea, since the public wants to hear other arguments.

That is another reason why Putin needs China – it gives him an opportunity to impress everyone with the greatness of the newly signed gas deal.

Since the Chinese economy grows by more than 7 percent a year, it will need more and more gas over the years and could eventually replace a significant part of the European Union’s demand. For sure, the Russian gas monopoly now will be less likely to offer the EU price discounts. And this may motivate the Western European political bloc to become much less supportive to Ukraine in its negotiations with Russia over the gas deal.

However, China is a country that is undergoing very dynamic changes. Market forces are starting to play a far more important role in the way things are being done in China. Its connections with the Western world have never been as strong as they are now – users of Apple devices, assembled in China, will confirm this.

All of this gives reasons to believe that China will eventually take a different look at doing business with Russia. It may not cancel any mutual projects, but China might use these projects as a leverage to put pressure on Russia for certain Putin decisions that it does not like.

In the long run, Beijing may not be such a problem-free and criticism-free ally for Moscow as Putin wants it to be.

Kyiv Post associate business editor Ivan Verstyuk can be reached at [email protected].