I would say Russia has known of the Chinese situation for quite some time now, and it can easily be seen by the types of arms that go to India (e.g. the Akula II) versus those that go to China (e.g. SU-30MKK, which the Chinese have already copied into their ‘indigenous’ J-11s). Also, if you look at specific weapons systems, for example the PakFa of which three T-50 prototypes have flown so far, one can see that they are quite specific in their applications - China. A country like India doesn’t need the PakFa for the likes of Pakistan, and the PakFa wouldn’t do much for Russia against the US. However, against Chinese air assets, the PakFa is absolutely perfect. Note that the PakFa has also been offered to South Korea (as part of their next generation fighter competition, which is a country that is not necessarily kissing buddies with China). The level of technology transfer between Russia and India has also been considerable, yet joint projects like the BrahMos are not even made available to China (yet are made available to countries like Viet Nam, which is another country that has a huge bone to pick with China). There is a lot of resource-rich Russian land in Siberia that the Chinese claim belongs to them (that they ‘lost’ during the Opium wars), thus a China that is increasingly getting powerful (and will arguably be a superpower within the next 2 decades if all goes well ....and according to some far sooner than that all things being equal) is definitely causing concerns in Moscow. The same concerns being felt in India, Viet Nam, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and the United States.
——There is a lot of resource-rich Russian land in Siberia that the Chinese claim-——
A growing and dynamic China will reclaim all that and more from a dying Russia, perhaps soon.
Russia is a tragedy. It can make nothing but weapons, and there are not enough sales to provide for a weapons based economy.
Drunken drones rely on wives and sisters to earn the money for the vodka. The women choose working to support drones over procreation. Death of the colony will result.....soon