Putin Calls U.S. Shale “Barbaric”

Vladimir Putin has spent his week cozying up to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and dissing the United States’ oil industry, dismissing shale oil production as a “barbaric” process. At the same time, Putin has announced that Russian oil output has increased despite the fact that the country has also pledged to remain cooperative with OPEC’s production curbs. On Wednesday Putin announced that “Russia and OPEC have ‘a common goal’ of keeping the oil market balanced and predictable,…