In a rare occurrence I agree with the saying "money isn't everything". Even if China paid the whole bill Russia could still "do half". In projects like this knowledge is at least as important and Russia do have a lot, even though it isn't what it once were in space tech and knowledge.

For comparison, Italy's GDP was 2 trillion in 2019. 20% more than Russia. Obviously Russia is going to be a junior partner. However, they got much more technical expertise than China.

Russia is extremely efficient. Look at what sort of military they have with their defense budget vs the USA.

Efficiently running away from Turkey?

Wouldn't the obvious constellation be that China provides the money, and Russia provides the know-how? Russia might desperately need the money to keep the remains of their space program alive, while any interesting technology they still might possess will be transferred to China.

The Chinese landed a rover on the moon, which is as far as the Russians got. And they did so with up-to-date tech.

Regarding Space exploration, the Chinese are not going to learn anything from the Russians.

The Russians didn't stop at the moon though:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera

They didn't have much luck with their Mars missions unfortunately:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_program

Also, the Chinese manned space program was essentially bootstrapped by Russia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_program

Chinese prefer their own way. Not being content with others failed attempts, they now want to create their own modern autocracy story. Russian warnings about stalinism aren't heard in China.

Good points, but when it comes to space launch and space technology, Russia still has a lot to offer.

For a while, until China learns everything it needs from them and then discards them.

This scenario has been played over and over.

Not a problem for the current government ministers. It'll be someone else's problem when that happens in a couple of decades.

Adjust for PPP. Russia is poor but not that poor.

Unadjusted: $1.4Tr

Adjusted: $4Tr

I guess that whether or not it makes sense to adjust, in this case, depends on whether the expense will leave the country or not.

If you imagine that Russia's contribution to the project will be providing scientists and technology, maybe it makes sense to adjust.

PPP doesn’t work when you need import goods from 40 other countries to build rockets.

> If you imagine that Russia's contribution to the project will be providing scientists and technology

Can't read?