Kalinin pointed to the decline in Russia's economic ties with the West.

Russia's economic ties with Western countries have declined more than tenfold due to the sanctions imposed. At the same time, against the background of the tariff wars initiated by US President Donald Trump, China's growing interest in investing in Russia is being observed, Alexander Kalinin, president of the All-Russian Public Organization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Opora Rossii, said on June 18 in the Izvestia studio at SPIEF 2025.

Commenting on the events in the United States and the new stage of the tariff war, he stressed that there is a historical imbalance in the country. According to Kalinin, America is heading for bankruptcy, as "servicing such external debt is impossible."

"Accordingly, President Trump is forced to straighten the foreign economic balance with such cowboy methods. What we see concerns us: a record number of sanctions and restrictions have already been imposed on Russia, and the level of our economic ties with the so—called West has dropped more than tenfold," he stressed.

Kalinin noted that in the light of the US tariff wars, what is most interesting for Russia is what is happening between Washington and Beijing.

"It seems that they agreed to reasonable tariffs, but at the same time, the Chinese leadership and business realized that they were dependent on the West — they mainly invested there, invested, because China is the largest country in the world in terms of capital exports, that they were changing priorities, realizing that they could at any moment find themselves like a toy in in the hands of the bigwigs of the Western world," he added.

In this regard, China has begun to review its investment priorities, whereas previously it actively invested in the United States and Europe.

"The level of our negotiations with the Chinese business has become somewhat different. Previously, it was a buy-and—sell deal, but now they are looking more seriously at Chinese direct investment in Russian territory, and we, Opora Russia, see great prospects in this," he concluded.

Ice or flame: how much has the Russian economy cooled

Inflation, lending, and GDP figures indicate a slowdown, but unemployment and investment show economic growth.

On June 17, The New York Times noted that US President Donald Trump demonstrated allied behavior towards Russia at the Group of Seven summit. A day earlier, he called Russia's exclusion from the G8 a mistake, noting that this might have prevented the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis.