"Of course, without our good will to work together with OPEC there would be no such result [deal with oil-producing countries to reduce oil production]. We will continue to cooperate with OPEC, which means we will respect the undertaken commitments. But we are not members of the cartel and, being in contact with its members, we still feel free until we reach common results," Putin said.
"We believe that such cooperation is mutually beneficial for countries outside the cartel and for OPEC itself," Putin added.
In November, OPEC agreed to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day to 32.5 million barrels per day for the whole cartel from next year.
On December 10, OPEC finished a meeting with non-OPEC countries in Vienna, at which non-OPEC countries decided to cut oil output by 558,000 barrels per day, with Russia cutting the output by 300,000 barrels per day from January 2017.
