Ilia Neskhodovskyi, head of the analytical direction at the ANTS network, said this on Espreso TV.“Building the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline could take five to seven years. The Russians could increase the capacity of the existing main pipeline to China, but there isn’t enough gas. The required volumes simply don’t exist. This means, as Putin immediately said, that they plan to take gas from households and businesses and switch them to heating with electricity and coal. This is less profitable than gas, but he is ready to force Russians to finance the possibility of selling more gas to China. In other words, this is a failure,” said Neskhodovskyi.The analyst explained that without external financing, Russia cannot implement the Power of Siberia 2 project. Russia itself does not have funds for this project.“Russia does not have the money to build the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline. Gazprom is bankrupt. They are selling off their assets and laying off employees just to stay afloat. Gazprom’s financial statements are manipulations meant to show some positive aspects. The company is surviving solely thanks to Gazprom Neft, which is part of Gazprom and shows decent results. However, their profits have already fallen by 50%. This means Gazprom has no money, and Russian banks lend at 20%. No project can be implemented at such interest rates, and there is no external financing — China refused to provide funds for this project. Most importantly, the Russian budget already has a deficit of over $60 billion. So, there are no funds, and Putin went to China not to show a memorandum, but to secure financing for his investment project,” he concluded.On Tuesday, September 2, Gazprom announced that Russia had signed an agreement to build a new large-scale gas pipeline to China, but the project’s cost remains unclear.On September 5, Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service reported that China refused to finance the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, estimated at $25 billion.