Putin’s energy card plays China and Japan

Energy issue is not an energy issue; it is more like a national security issue. In terms of big consumers like China and Japan, the stakes of not having a stable supply is too high to ignore. However, the one they turn to is not eager to meet their needs as they wanted.

Russia’s Putin increasingly plays energy card between China and Japan, to squeeze both countries to give more to satisfy the bear in order to get oils they desperately need. The recent example, the pipelines issue.

While Putin signaled a renewed seriousness toward a crude oil pipeline that China wants to offset a growing dependence on Middle East imports, he stopped short of the firm promise that an increasingly frustrated Beijing may have wanted.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) would provide credit of up to $400 million to build the pipeline to China, the president of Russia's Transneft said on Wednesday.

Moscow says it cannot make any promises until it completes a study into the route, which is in competition with Japan, also desperate for a more secure source of oil.