Russia and China have closely interconnected histories and partially coinciding interests in the globalizing world. Disillusioned with the counteraction with the West, especially as a result of the ‘Ukrainian crisis’, Moscow started to construct its ‘own world’, consisting of its own partners. Under this scenario China, with its economic abilities and deep historic ties with the USSR/Russia, looked to be a very privileged partner. But the attempts to change the declared ‘strategic partnership’ between Beijing and Moscow into a closer alliance did not coincide with China’s policy of a ‘peaceful rise’ which was intended to get the maximum possible advantage for Chinese national development from all participants of the world process, without complicating, except with very good reason, its relations with any state. This article analyses the developments in the principal fields of the Russian–Chinese cooperation in the context of the attitudes of the Russian political elite.