Russia and China are "close allies" with their ties running at a very high level and bilateral cooperation expanding steadily, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday."We see each other as close allies, so of course we always listen to each other, by this I mean we keep in mind each other's interests," Putin told Xinhua in an interview ahead of his state visit to China.He noted that mutual trust between Moscow and Beijing had reached an unprecedented level and laid a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation, which now covered many areas including trade, energy and infrastructure.