Re: Russia-China: Putin's next term

["Chris Doss" <nomorebounces@xxxxxxx>]

I read somewhere the Chinese felt betrayed when the Russians agreed to
let the Japanese, late entrants, divert the proposed West Siberian oil
pipeline from Daqing to Nakhodka for trans-shipment across the Sea of
Japan to Japan and beyond -- presumably to the US West Coast. The
Chinese evidently thought they had reached agreement in Moscow last year
that the oil would be directed their way. Now they're being told,  it
would seem from the Asia Times article, that they'll have to make do
with more limited and costly shipments by rail. How big an issue was/is
this, and was there any US role as far as you know?

Marv Gandall
---
I edited several articles on this subject a while back. My memory is fuzzy, but as far as I recollect there was no US role. It was competitive lobbying by LUKoil and Yukos; Yukos was favoring developing (completely hypothetical) shipments to the US (and we all know what happened to Yukos), LUK was favoring some other development strategy. (Transport limitations of the state oil-pipe network, Transneft, also played a big role.) John Helmer wrote a lot on this; do a google and you'll find material.