, Columnist
Putin and OPEC's Mad Hatter Tea Party
His wish to exempt Iran could encourage freeloaders.
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Vladimir Putin appears to have joined Lewis Carroll's Alice on her trip through Wonderland, where nothing is quite what it seems, at least as far as talk of an oil output freeze is concerned.
The Russian president appears keen to patch together the pieces of an accord for a freeze when his delegates and OPEC officials meet1472825832054 in Algeria later this month. A potential agreement was smashed apart in April when Saudi Arabia refused to take part at the last minute -- it and other Gulf nations were unable to swallow an exemption for Iran.