Russia’s AI ambitions clash with reality: Is Putin's gamble now being funneled through China?

Russia is racing to build something that could reshape how its hospitals run, how its metros move, how its citizens interact with the state and even how its military fights wars. But what does it really mean when Vladimir Putin says he wants Russia to “possess its own generative AI”? Is this about catching up with Silicon Valley or building a state-controlled super-algorithm that influences everything from public services to propaganda? As Moscow pushes for AI that is trained, stored, and governed inside Russia, the geopolitical stakes rise. Can a country under sanctions, with a weak chip industry and a shrinking tech workforce, create models that can rival GPT or DeepSeek? Or will Russia’s AI dream be forced to run through China’s pipelines? And if AI becomes the new oil, does this investment define who leads and who follows in the next decade of geopolitics? Ananya Dutta breaks down why Russia wants its own AI and what the world should worry about next.