Chinese businessmen have sharply increased company registrations in Russia, data independently collected in March by T-Business (part of T-Bank) and the Rusprofile service show.
The number of LLCs and sole proprietorships registered by Chinese entrepreneurs rose 85% between 2023 and 2025 to more than 400 per month, according to data from T-Business. Analysts note that Chinese entrepreneurs in Russia are currently focusing on e-commerce and retail. In e-commerce, the number of Chinese business registrations doubled over the past year, meaning one in five LLCs in the Russian online retail sector is established by Chinese entrepreneurs.
Between December 2021 and February 2026, the number of Russian companies with Chinese founders or co-founders grew tenfold to 14,800, according to Rusprofile’s estimates. In particular, in 2025, Chinese investors established more than 4,300 companies in Russia, up 46% from 2024. As a result, Chinese founders now account for over 22% of all organizations with foreign participation in Russia.
Chinese businessmen are also acquiring existing companies in Russia. In 2025, one in four such companies was an acquisition rather than a new registration. A fresh example is the acquisition of 100% of Perm-based bicycle maker Forward (Space LLC) by the Hong Kong-based company Befortune, owned by Chinese businessman Liang Jianxiong.
How China’s approach to the Russian market is changing
Historically, Chinese direct investment in Russia has been relatively modest, not exceeding a few billion dollars per year (official statistics from the Bank of Russia have not been published since 2022). The main investors were large Chinese state-owned corporations (such as Sinopec and CNPC), while private Chinese businesses tended to invest in Russia on a more selective basis. In most cases, these investments took the form of a minority stake or a share in a joint venture without a transfer of control.
Since 2022, Chinese companies have moved to fill the niches left by departing Western firms, but momentum among major players has been limited. As of mid-2025, the Eurasian Development Bank estimated China’s cumulative investments in Russia at $17.5 billion. Among the publicly disclosed projects currently underway are the construction of a silicon carbide plant in the Voronezh Region by Henan Si&C and IGBR International’s investment in the production of oilfield equipment in the Kaluga Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which was announced in 2023.
Overall, major Chinese companies remain wary of Western secondary sanctions and have been slow to establish high-tech manufacturing facilities in Russia, showing interest primarily in raw materials and logistics. At the end of 2025, Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, noted that a massive influx of Chinese businesses into the local market had yet to materialize, but Russia should be prepared for it. Continued tight monetary policy has been holding investors back: the Bank of Russia’s key rate stands at 15%, raising the bar for profit margin for Chinese projects in the country.
A trade-led shift
However, a different picture emerges based on quantitative data supplied by T-Business and Rusprofile (which primarily cover China's small and medium-sized businesses).
Chinese businesses appear to have adapted to the sanctions environment, actively establishing local operations to serve the Russian market—primarily in e-commerce and distribution, Vedomosti cited Yaroslav Kabakov, director of strategy at Finam, as saying. The relatively small proportion of Sino-Russian joint ventures noted in Rusprofile’s statistics suggests that Chinese investors prefer to have full control over their businesses and supply chains. Furthermore, according to Kabakov, Chinese companies do not require a Russian partner when it comes to importing goods from China.
More than half of the Chinese companies registered in 2025 were in the e-commerce sector, 28% were in wholesale and retail trade, and less than 3% — in manufacturing, T-Business says. According to Kabakov, against the backdrop of a sharp increase in trade turnover between Russia and China since 2022, this means that Chinese companies have begun to register legal entities in Russia more actively, allowing them to control sales, logistics, and settlements with local partners directly, while also simplifying their work with marketplaces and import shipments. Chinese companies are seeking to establish a direct presence by registering local LLCs and opening their own stores to reduce their reliance on marketplaces, said Sergey Zyatikov, head of the e-commerce division at T-Business.
A “post-industrial” approach
China accounted for 39% of Russian imports by the end of 2025, as estimated by economists at the Gaidar Institute. Goods shipments from China to Russia in 2025 fell 10,6% to $103 billion, mainly due to a reduction in automobile shipments caused by rising scrap collection fees in Russia, data from China’s General Administration of Customs shows. Zyatikov said the Russian market has become even more attractive to Chinese manufacturers amid high U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
However, China still does not view Russia as a destination for meaningful investment, says Alexei Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University. For example, the international advanced special economic zones framework was introduced in the Far East in 2026, offering foreign investors confidentiality guarantees. “The Chinese have yet to come in”, Maslov noted.
According to the Asian studies expert, China behaves as a “typical post-industrial' economy: it sells finished products to Russia, but not technology. As for the numerous retail outlets opening up, they require less investment and scale up more quickly, while manufacturing localization requires significant investment and long-term stability, Kabakov noted.