But as soon as Xi Jingping, shortly after rising to the helm of power, selected Moscow, and not Washington, as the first foreign capital for his official visit, although in keeping with the economic logic it should have been the other way round, it became clear that there also exist geopolitical motives, and that they can be stronger than money. One cannot say that China disregards its own economic interests altogether, but from the geopolitical standpoint Russia is first, and the United States, second.“