An oligarch's yacht and 10,000 tons of China's love for Putin

If you’re looking for a symbol of the state of Russia-China relations, it’s floating in the waters of Hong Kong.

Whatever reservations Chinese leader Xi Jinping may have expressed about the course of the war in Ukraine, the arrival of a Russian oligarch’s $500 million superyacht — and the city government’s refusal to impound it — are a 10,000-ton display of just how relaxed Beijing is about its Moscow associations.

The 141-meter (465-foot) Nord, reported to be owned by Alexey Mordashov, moored in Hong Kong earlier this month, setting off a quasi-legaliztic spat between the U.S. and city authorities. Mordashov, the largest shareholder in steelmaker Severstal PJSC, has been sanctioned by the European Union, U.K. and U.S. over his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.