STORY: :: Russia's President Putin shakes a robotic hand at a trip to a Chinese university
:: May 17, 2024
:: Harbin, China
Putin arrived in Harbin on Friday to kick off the second leg of his two-day state visit to China, his first foreign visit after victory in the presidential election.
The day before, on Thursday (May 16), China's President Xi Jinping greeted Putin on a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Russia, grappling with Western sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine, is increasingly reliant on its booming trade with China, which is challenging U.S. supremacy in areas from quantum computing to espionage and hard military power.
