FP: Hammered by the West, Putin Turns East

Right as the West is tightening the screws on Russia's energy sector, Vladimir Putin is accelerating his own pivot to the east, moving closer to another giant natural gas deal with China.

If consummated this fall, the multibillion-dollar deal would at least partially alleviate Russia's fears about finding future markets for its gas exports and China's worries over finding future energy supplies, especially natural gas, for its growing economy and population. By potentially boosting Russia's leverage with respect to Europe while dealing a blow to other gas exporters' hopes of leaping into the Chinese market, the deal's knock-on effects could be felt from Brussels to British Columbia.

But as with another, $400 billion gas deal the two countries signed in May, plenty of questions remain, including whether the two sides can agree on a price for the gas, and whether sanctions-battered Russian firms will be able to finance the billions of dollars needed to build new gas-export infrastructure in western Siberia.

On Wednesday, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller told Putin that the gas giant is ready to sign a 30-year deal to supply China with 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas through the so-called western route, which would snake from western Siberia to sparsely populated areas in western China and then overland to the Chinese coast. The contract could be signed in November.  MORE