HANOI, June 19 (Reuters) - Russia's President Vladimir

Putin praised Vietnam for its "balanced" stance on the Ukraine

war and listed progress on payments, energy and trade in an

opinion piece published on Wednesday in the newspaper of

Vietnam's Communist Party.

In the piece timed for Putin's state visit to Vietnam, he

applauded the Southeast Asian Communist-ruled country for

supporting "a pragmatic way to solve the crisis" in Ukraine, in

comments published in the Nhan Dan newspaper.