How China is powering Putin’s deadliest new weapon

One thing that has dogged the Russian defence industry is the speed of production. A lot of their factories are very old-fashioned – they don’t produce aircraft or engines very quickly or very well,” said Nick Reynolds, research fellow for land warfare at Rusi, a UK defence think tank. “That’s why you’re seeing imports being of such high importance,” he said. “The Chinese manufacturing ecosystem is leaps and bounds ahead of the Russian manufacturing sector.”