China’s Alibaba has tightened conditions for Russian companies

Payments with Russian cards are no longer carried out, except for some banks, but most likely Alibaba will simply return this money in a few days, markets expert Artem Bobtsov told the publication.

According to him, now Russian buyers will have to use schemes with Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Armenian cards. At the same time, for the physical delivery of goods to the Russian Federation, it will be necessary to resort to “some kind of transit schemes”, which will lead to higher prices and loss of “economic sense” when purchasing goods in the market. – Bobtsov stressed.

Alibaba’s tightening of policy is mainly due to the threat of secondary sanctions, which have caused other problems with Russian payments in China, explains economic expert Semyon Novoprudsky.

The joint statement following the negotiations between the presidents of the two countries in Beijing states that the parties will make efforts to organize uninterrupted mutual agreements, but the specific mechanism to do so is not detailed in the document, the specialist said.

• In March 2024, large Chinese banks stopped accepting payments from Russia in yuan. Their clients started receiving notifications accordingly. Banks fear secondary sanctions and pressure from the United States.