Russia-China Gas Deal Stalled Over Price

Today offers a rare example of the Gray Lady publishing a story that completely confirms an article published on a left-of-center, anti-imperialist web site. The story is today's "Ukraine Crisis Pushing Putin Toward China" by Neil MacFarquhar and Davids Herszenhorn; the article it confirmed is Pepe Escobar's "Who's Pivoting Where in Eurasia?" which appeared this past Sunday afternoon on TomDispatch.com.

Russia and China according to RT News are about to conclude a long-term gas deal:

Russia and China are due to sign a long-awaited gas contract on Tuesday, in which Beijing could pay up to $456 billion for Russian gas over the next 30 years. 

While Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Shanghai on May 20-21, Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) are due to sign a deal for 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to power China's growing economy, starting in 2018.

But this morning, Jane Perlez, reporting for the Gray Lady from Beijing, says that there is no deal, "China and Russia Fail to Reach Agreement on Gas Plan." The two countries could not agree on a price.

MacFarquhar and Herszenhorn had reported in their story that price, a barrier to any deal for a long time, was likely to be settled in favor of China since Russia was eager to show the North Atlantic Alliance that it had other avenues of development than the Western financial system. Escobar was convinced that it was a done deal, part of a BRICS-initiated paradigm shift.

I interpret yesterday's DOJ indictments of PLA hackers as a publicity stunt meant as a warning for China not to launch an attack on the status quo.

The deal might still come off.