Oil and gas exports are the only thing keeping the Russian economy afloat.

Georgi Kantchev: The Western sanctions on Russia's oil exports are hitting hard. In January, for example, revenues in the state budget from oil and gas fell by 46%. That is huge because oil and gas provide half of the revenues of the budget.

Ryan Knutson: Russia's budget deficit in January was $25 billion.

Georgi Kantchev: So now, Russian economy is in a very brutal stage because the budget is hurting. At the same time, they still have issues with finding parts for various industries and importing things, and then of course the other industrial sanctions that are on there. So right now they have to choose really, and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president himself, in a recent speech, he referred to the so-called guns versus butter dilemma. Which one do you choose? Do you choose to fund the war? Do you choose to fund the economy? And they have to do both because obviously the war is not going anywhere.

Ryan Knutson: And the main reason the economy is starting to feel so much pain now and has this big budget deficit now is because these oil and gas sanctions are just now starting to bite?

Georgi Kantchev: Absolutely, yeah.

Ryan Knutson: Russian officials have said they've been able to withstand the sanctions and that the sanctions are driven by anti-Russian sentiment in the West. While much of the world has turned its back to Russia, there's one country that's actually come in to help, China. How important is China to Russia?

Georgi Kantchev: Hugely important, both politically and economically. And now China is really this economic lifeline to Russia because it's both buying what Russia has to sell somewhere, it's mainstay of the economy, the oil and gas, and providing what Russia cannot get from the West anymore.

Ryan Knutson: China is also helping Russia in other ways.

Georgi Kantchev: Trade between China and Russia boomed last year. That really provided the lifeline to the Russian economy and also obviously showed the limits of Western sanctions because the government, but also Russian companies, began looking for ways to import critical parts, machinery, semiconductors, chips that were missing. So it was able to compensate, to some extent, for those import sections introduced by the West.