President Xi Jinping greeted the Russian leader in Beijing, welcoming him as my old friend.

This is Mr Putin's first foreign trip since his unprecedented re-election for a fifth term, and his second visit to China in six months.

It comes as the war in Ukraine has left Russia diplomatically isolated across much of the West, as well as facing unprecedented sanctions.

So President Putin is seeking to strengthen friendships elsewhere.

Let me take you live to Beijing, where we are expecting the two leaders to hold a news conference in the next little while.

You can see that on the right-hand side of the screen.

Now, the talks have gone on longer than we expected, and I can bring in our China correspondent, Stephen McDonald, who is in Beijing.

Mr Putin getting the full red carpet treatment, and these talks, Stephen, going on longer, as I said, than we expected.

Yeah, well, often these things do sort of run late.

I mean, I suppose I should say, when you mention news conference, I don't think...

Well, I'd be very, very, very surprised if there is a genuine news conference featuring those two leaders.

They may come out and make a few statements in front of the cameras, but Xi Jinping doesn't take questions from the press, for example, so I don't think there will be a news conference in any real sense.

But when we look at what's going on at the Great Hall of the People today, the Biden administration has already accused the Chinese government of materially supporting Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Now, when I say materially supporting, that's equipment, goods, which are being sent to Russia, apparently with a sort of a civilian use, but really which are being used to fuel the war.

What this trip is all about is also providing Vladimir Putin with moral support.

There he is.

He's quite isolated on the world stage.

He can't travel to many countries for fear of being arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.

Here, he can have a grand meeting in which he would appear to many of his own people to be more of a genuine, normal world leader than an international pariah.

And then when he has his meeting with Xi Jinping, I'll give you a few quotes from both of them.

He said that...

Stabilising factors.

This is Vladimir Putin.

I think many people in Ukraine would find that pretty laughable that he would be getting up and saying those things mid-invasion of another country.

And yet, here this is all treated seriously and reported in the Chinese press, and Xi Jinping responds to him that these two countries are upholding justice in the world.

You know, again, I think many would find that a bit hard to believe that these two leaders, they may do many things, but promoting justice in the world wouldn't be at the top of the pile.

Another thing that China is doing for Russia is buying goods.

The most recent figures show an uptake in Russian gas being imported into China by 40%.

Now, that doesn't make up for all the lost revenue for Gazprom following European countries not buying that gas from Russia anymore.

But it's also not nothing.

And so there's Russia, its economy struggling with sanctions on it.

Along comes China, a country which says it's neutral when it comes to the war and essentially propping up the Russian government.

Because after all, many analysts would say that what Vladimir Putin really is doing is China's dirty work by undermining Western democracy, by eating up NATO resources, and allowing Xi Jinping to sort of step back and say, oh, it's got nothing to do with us.

Stephen Macdonald, live in Beijing.