На жаль, не блеф.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-meeting-idUSKBN13Q4WG?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social By Rania El Gamal, Parisa Hafezi and Dmitry Zhdannikov | VIENNA
Russian President Vladimir Putin played a crucial role in helping OPEC rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia set aside differences to forge the cartel's first deal with non-OPEC Russia in 15 years.
Interventions ahead of Wednesday's OPEC meeting came at key moments from Putin, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, OPEC and non-OPEC sources said.
Putin’s role as intermediary between Riyadh and Tehran was pivotal, testament to the rising influence of Russia in the Middle East since its military intervention in the Syrian civil war just over a year ago.
It started when Putin met Saudi Prince Mohammed in September on the sidelines of a G20 gathering in China.
The two agreed to cooperate to help world oil markets clear a glut that had more than halved oil prices since 2014, pummeling Russian and Saudi government revenues. Oil prices are up 10 pct this week topping $53 a barrel.
The financial pain made a deal possible despite the huge political differences between Russia and Saudi over the civil war in Syria.
"Putin wants the deal. Full stop. Russian companies will have to cut production," said a Russian energy source briefed on the discussions.
In September, OPEC agreed in principle at a meeting in Algiers to reduce output for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
But the individual country commitments required to finalize a deal at Wednesday's Vienna meeting still required much diplomacy.
Recent OPEC meetings have failed because of arguments between de facto leader Saudi Arabia and third-largest producer Iran. Tehran has long argued OPEC should not prevent it restoring output lost during years of Western sanctions.
But OPEC would not be OPEC without a last-minute quarrel threatening to derail the deal. Iraq became a problem.
As ministerial talks got underway, OPEC's second-largest producer insisted it could not afford to cut output, given the cost of its war against Islamic State.
But, facing pressure from the rest of OPEC to contribute a cut, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi picked up the phone in front of his peers to call his prime minister, Haider al-Abadi.
"Abadi said: 'Get the deal done'. And that was it," one OPEC source said.
