Cooking School in Vladivostok

       Well, who would have thought?  Two world leaders gathering in the far, far north, to discuss the fine points of Asian cuisine.  Who arranged this "Bro-feast"?  Perhaps the geopolitical landscape is less rocky than one thinks.   So, Mr. Putin meets with Premier Xi of China to discuss the proper temperature to saute pork-filled dumplings?  Or what type of cabbage makes the best borsch: green or red or pickled?  Is your pork drug free?  What type of wine do you prefer to wash down a fine meal?  A Cabernet?  A Bordeaux?  Maybe a nice Riesling from the Rhine River Valley?
      But, maybe the two were really talking politics.  Maybe they needed to inform on policy vis-a-vis the Great Satan across the Pacific?  How do we deal with the Orange Leader?  Let's work out a mutually beneficial strategy, especially with oil.  Yes, especially oil.  OPEC is as befuddled as the rest of us.  My, my.  What a situation.
     So, the brief but important two party summit accomplished little, but it did serve notice to US State Dept. officials that the divide between the Asian super powers is more cordial than expected.  Time will tell.  Perhaps Mr. Putin is negotiating a sale of a swath of the Far, far east of the largest country in the world.  Really, it's a vast, untapped resource of a country with little capital to invest in even basic development.  It makes sense for Russya to sell off a chunk and raise a little capital, say about $450 billions.  That would buy a lot of margin.   Say if the deal was a timed purchase at 4%, Mr. Putin would have a steady income to put into infrastructure west of the Urals where Russya really lives.  Vladivostok could be kept as a window on the Pacific, of course, but the rest would not be missed by anybody.  Right now, upwards of 5 million Chinese citizens live and work in the area around Vladivostok.  They would like to own some of the land they work.
    Could happen.