MOSCOW: When President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty this week annexing Crimea to great fanfare in the Kremlin and anger in the West, a trusted lieutenant was making his way to Asia to shore up ties with Russia's eastern allies.
Forcing home the symbolism of his trip, Igor Sechin gathered the media in Tokyo the next day to warn Western governments that more sanctions over Moscow's incorporation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine would be counter-productive.
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