Although Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin undoubtedly had numerous goals in visiting Beijing last week, his most visible mission was to make progress in the protracted negotiations concerning China’s possible purchase of an enormous volume of Russian natural gas.
For years, this issue has been a prominent agenda item at Russian-Chinese leadership summits. Expectations had been rising that an agreement might be imminent, but Putin provedunable to finalize the deal, further postponing the date when the pipeline might be built.
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