Russian President Vladimir Putin has had a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasizing the two countries’ close ties, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president.

Chinese state-sponsored groups including Mustang Panda and Tonto Team have been targeting Russian aerospace and defense firms looking for intelligence on Moscow's military capabilities, researchers at the Taiwanese cybersecurity firm TeamT5 told POLITICO.

By Dmitry Antonov and Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin held a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday in which he proposed further developing their strategic partnership just hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.

Although Aeroflot has reduced Russia-China capacity by 5% compared with pre-pandemic levels, it is currently offering 16 nonstop routes between the countries, compared with seven in 2019. Recent additions include Krasnoyarsk-Harbin, Khabarovskiy-Sanya and Moscow Sheremetyevo-Sanya.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Moscow and Beijing's foreign policy ties played a stabilising role in international affairs.

China's largest airline, China Southern Airlines, has suspended flights from Beijing to Moscow at the end of January, a surprise move that comes just ahead of the Chinese New Year. Newsweek reached out to China Southern Airlines and the Russian Foreign Ministry with an emailed request for comment outside of office hours.

The two leaders have developed strong personal ties that helped boost relations between Moscow and Beijing, growing even closer after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.

The U.S. “will have to out-think” Russia and China to prevent them from using nuclear weapons to resolve a future crisis, the outgoing head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said last week.

In December, Russia reportedly sold its stakes in certain Kazakh uranium deposits to Chinese-owned companies. This involved Kazakhstan's nuclear resources company, Kazatomprom, and Russia's Rosatom transferring interests to Chinese entities, National Security News reported.

Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a call Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasizing the two countries’ close ties, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th