Moscow has been engaged in “long term” discussions with Beijing but has been so far unable to strike a deal with Beijing in securing loans in the Chinese currency, the yuan, Russia’s finance minister has said.

The comments by Anton Siluanov come as Russia seeks to pivot away from the West due to sanctions imposed by its full-scale invasion of Ukraine which has led to a huge boom in trade with China.

Moscow has been hoping to attract money from Chinese investors to offset Western capital which has disappeared with the measures aimed at isolation the Russian economy from the global financial system. But Siluanov told state news agency…