The Russians bringing gas power to Beijing Olympics side talks
- President Vladimir Putin has brought a small but heavy-hitting team with him on his China visit, with up to 15 deals on the table
- Putin is also the first world leader to meet Xi Jinping in person since the start of the pandemic in 2020
1. Vladimir Putin
Putin and Xi have been strongly supporting each other in the face of tensions with the West over human rights issues and Ukraine.
Closer gas and financial ties will be discussed when the two leaders have lunch together on Friday, and they could sign more than 15 agreements.
2. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
One day ahead of the Xi-Putin summit, Russia’s foreign minister met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and vowed closer coordination between the two countries.
Lavrov, who began his diplomatic career in Sri Lanka, has been in his current role since 2004. He has worked closely with the United Nations throughout his service, including as first secretary of the Soviet Union’s embassy, becoming Russia’s permanent representative after its collapse.
Lavrov speaks English, French and Sinhala, and was described as “a tough, reliable, extremely sophisticated negotiator” by Bobo Lo, a foreign policy expert who headed the Russia and Eurasia Programme at London’s Chatham House.
3. Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov
Shulginov has a long history with Russia’s power supply industry before joining the government in 2020.
He worked as an engineer from 1975 before taking on managerial and directorial posts in a number of companies, including OAO Unified Energy System of Russia which controlled most of the country’s electricity supply before its closure in 2008.
Shulginov then obtained a doctorate in technology from the North Caucasus State Technical University and went on to become general director of RusHydro – the world’s second-largest hydroelectric power producer – before making the switch to politics.
4. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko
Chernyshenko has his own distinguished Winter Games history, as president of the Olympic Organising Committee for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
He was recognised at the Sochi Games with the Paralympic Order, an award presented in recognition of his contribution to the Paralympic Movement.
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Chernyshenko was an entrepreneur before joining the government in 2020, as deputy prime minister. He was listed in 2018 and 2019 as one of Variety’s 500 most influential business leaders in the media industry.
He is a former CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding, one of Russia’s largest entertainment and media conglomerates.
5. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin
The head of Russia’s state-controlled energy company – one of the largest in the world – has also been one of Putin’s closest allies and counsellors since they first started working together in the early 1990s.
Sechin was deputy prime minister from 2008 until 2012. Before that, Sechin worked in Mozambique in the 1980s as an interpreter for the Soviet Union. He is fluent in Portuguese and French.
6. Presidential aide Yury Ushakov
The Kremlin official who started his career in the USSR foreign ministry is also the delegation’s spokesman during the Beijing visit.
