A month and a half before OPEC and its allies are set to sit down and discuss how to proceed with their production cut pact, the leader of the non-OPEC partners, Russia, is sending mixed signals on its willingness to continue taking part in the supply agreement. This is nothing new for Russia, which had dragged its feet in supporting each of the previous production deals with OPEC ever since the parties decided to team up to manage global oil supply and oil prices beginning in January 2017. After 2017, ahead of each meeting, comments and hints of top Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, left the oil market and analysts only guessing would Moscow play ball this time around. It did, every time. At the meeting in December 2018, when the current oil production cut deal was forged, it was Putin—through his energy minister Alexander Novak—who sat down separately […]