Russian trade with China has risen at least 40 percent year on year for the last two years and Russian officials say that a target to have $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2015 is likely to be reached ahead of time.
China's widening sphere of economic influence is already being felt on a local level in Russia, especially in areas close to the frontier, far from Moscow, where Chinese-made goods stock the shelves at local grocery stores and Russians make shopping trips to China for clothes and consumer goods.
The worry in Moscow, which forged an imperial dominion over sparsely populated Siberia in the 19th century, is that China's influence is now challenging Russian hegemony in its own lands.
"(Russia has) a neighbor that is becoming more and more powerful economically and its eastern territory is becoming increasingly focused on that powerhouse next door," said Trenin.
"Literally, they are becoming an appendage to China's growing industry."
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