SHANGHAI, November 17. /TASS/. The United States is losing its ability to exert significant pressure on Russia and China, Wu Dahui, the deputy director of the Institute for Russian Studies at Tsinghua University, has said.

"We see that the United States is now in a difficult position. The US can actually exert ever less pressure on China and Russia," said Wu at the latest session of the Russian-Chinese academic conference organized in Shanghai by the international Valdai Discussion Club and East China Normal University (ECNU).

He stressed that the difficulties for Washington were related, in particular, to both the situation in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.

The scholar recalled that during the first year of the conflict in Ukraine the United States imposed more than 14,000 different sanctions on Russia, but failed to destroy the Russian economy, as evidenced by the forecasts the GDP will grow by 2.8% this year. However, he noted, there has been a currency devaluation, which to some extent was a consequence of overheating in the Russian economy.

"Inconspicuously the Russian economy has completely transformed. China has also endured many US sanctions. If the sanctions continue, this will be meaningless," the expert believes.

The scientific conference Crisis and Global Transformation: China and Russia Facing the Challenges of a Changing World Order was held in Shanghai on November 16-17 with leading experts from Russia and China taking part. The Valdai Discussion Club in cooperation with the ECNU has been organizing such conferences on a regular basis since 2010. This year's conference was the first in-person event in the last four years after a forced pause due to anti-Covid pandemic restrictions.