Russias Academy of Sciences (RAS) has opened a research center specializing in the study of Chinese President Xi Jinping's communist teachings, the first ever established outside China, Russian and Chinese media reported Thursday.Kirill Babayev, head of the RAS Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, linked the opening of the Xi Jinping Thought Research Laboratory to the growing Sino-Russian alliance.We need to know and analyze Xi Jinpings ideas very closely because China today is our main strategic and economic partner, Babayev told the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.Therefore, in order to develop our relations more efficiently, our government needs to properly understand the ideological basis for the development of modern-day China, he added.According to Xinhua, Russias research center will focus on the Chinese leaders economic, foreign, domestic, social, cultural and environmental policies.The outlet noted that the Xi laboratory will include researchers from Moscows Higher School of Economics and RAS own Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations.China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation, which has gained new momentum since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine despite Beijing's insistence that it is neutral in that conflict.Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi recently hailed their countries no-limits partnership, claiming that together they act as a counterweight to the global dominance of the United States.Xi visited Putin in a closely watched trip in March, where both leaders called each other dear friend and Xi invited the Russian leader to visit Beijing.