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Russia to China: A gas deal we all should have seen coming / Kenneth B Medlock III, Senior Director, Center for Energy Studies, Rice University’s Baker Institute, Forbes, 21/05/2014http://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2014/05/21/russia-to-china-a-gas-deal-we-all-should-have-seen-coming/The large supply deal that will send natural gas from Russia to China beginning in 2018 is significant in many ways. The deal, reportedly for 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year (or about 3.7 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day) at a price of $350 per mcm (or $9.90 per mcf), should put Russia in a very competitive situation to capture market share in a growing Chinese domestic natural gas market. Despite long-standing differences between the two nations, this should come as no surprise...Russia to China gas deal: A game of spigots ? / Steven W. Lewis, C.V. Starr Transnational China Fellow, Rice University’s Baker Institute, Forbes, 22/05/2014http://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2014/05/16/the-target-lesson-no-more-excuses-on-cyber/Russia to China gas deal is more than just a story of global markets and geopolitics (see my colleague Ken Medlock’s piece on the deal’s impact on global and Asian gas markets, and Jim Krane’s piece on global geopolitical implications of the negotiations). The gas pipeline between China and Russia also represents concrete personal achievements that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping can point to in defending their authoritarian policies against criticism from home and abroad...Putin pulls another ace from his sleeve in big gas deal with China / Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute, Forbes, 22/05/2014 http://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2014/05/22/putin-pulls-another-ace-from-his-sleeve-in-big-gas-deal-with-china-2/For Vladimir Putin’s reputation as a geopolitical necromancer, the $400 billion gas deal with China couldn’t have been timed better. The Russian president scoops up numerous take-homes. First, while Western corporate leaders reluctantly heed Washington’s plea to avoid this weekend’s economic summit in St. Petersburg, Putin demonstrates that attempts to isolate him are a lost cause...