Faced with a currency crisis, international censure, and falling oil prices, the Russian bear pulled a rabbit out of the hat when the state oil company, Gazprom, signed its second major deal with China.
Chinese customers are a welcome relief. The Russian economy and its energy giants have been swooning under the pressure of low oil prices and the sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. Also on the sidelines of an Asian economic summit meeting, the Russian state bank Sberbank signed an agreement to secure about $2 billion in financing from Chinese lenders, important for replacing European financing cut off by sanctions.
According to The New York Times, “the gas deal is the latest example of the Kremlin’s deft use of pipeline politics. The design of Eurasian pipelines to strengthen Russia’s geopolitical position, sometimes compared to a slow-motion chess match, has been a strong suit for President Vladimir V. Putin since he first took office more than a decade ago.”
Meanwhile after six years, the U.S. has yet to give the Keystone XL pipeline a thumbs up or a thumbs down.