Keun-Wook Paik: Sino-Russian gas cooperation: the reality and implications

... (LNG) to ‘Asia’. It takes the view that if China wants to buy, that is fine, but if not other countries will be happy to do so. At the same time Russia (unlike the Central Asian states and many other countries in the world) refuses to allow China to own any part of the field and pipeline development. This rigid stance is central to why Beijing has not accepted Gazprom’s commercial terms. Western media and energy security specialists argue that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using gas exports as a blackmail weapon against European buyers. When Russia has suspended its gas supply to Ukraine or Belarus, Putin has threatened to re-direct the gas exports ...