So far there’s been no shortage of smiles.  As OPEC members prepare for the big meeting tomorrow in Algeria, all eyes are suddenly looking toward the Russians in an attempt to gauge how much production they will agree to cut or what degree they will verbally express their agreement with the cartel’s plans to push the oil price back up from its 70% collapse in value from July.

Heading up the Russian coalition is of course Deputy Prime Minister and Rosneft head Igor Sechin, whose arrival in Orun will be carefully studied, and could represent Russia’s first definitive steps toward a new kind of relationship with the exporter’s group, one in which Moscow could selectively agree to participate in certain measures, but stopping short of being bound by obligations to the cartel.  As the largest oil producer outside of OPEC, the attendence of Sechin to this meeting, his second meeting with the group since Sept., is a considerable and unprecedented development.

But is it all just for show?