NPR.

This is the indicator from planet money I'm Darren Woods.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a fast-moving story with a ton of uncertainty, where barely

a week into the invasion and the full costs that Ukraine will ultimately pay is unclear.

For Russia, there is a cost too, an economic one, because of all the sanctions being imposed

on it right now.

As we talked about yesterday, Vladimir Putin saw this coming though.

He has been maneuvering to try to insulate his economy to kind of sanctions proof it.

But it seems like most of the world's biggest economies are lining up against Russia right

now.

Most that is, except maybe China.

Today I'm joined by John Ruich, NPR's China Affairs correspondent, Welcome John.

Hey Darren, so these two countries China and Russia have grown much closer in recent

years.

And they're doing it to counterbalance the US and the West.

Their economic links have become much deeper too.

So Beijing has not condemned the invasion.

They've blamed the US and NATO for pushing Russia into a corner and officials have explicitly

said that China is against the kind of sanctions that are being levied against Russia right

now.

Yeah, I can imagine that as a kind of thing that Putin is loving to hear.

I've heard Russian interlockers say that they view China as a kind of a strategic cushion.

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