Russia’s role in the alliance may be limited by the structure of the country’s oil industry, analysts said. Russian oil companies, notably Rosneft, the largest producer, are publicly traded companies that bristle at being told to reduce production.

The cuts that Russia has agreed to — 230,000 barrels a day — are small compared with how much oil it produces. Saudi Arabia has agreed to reduce its output by 320,000 barrels a day, but it is actually producing around one million barrels a day less than it was in late 2017.

“Their contributions have been pretty paltry,” said Joseph McMonigle, senior analyst at the market research firm Hedgeye, referring to Russia’s cutbacks. Mr. McMonigle, a senior Energy Department official in President George W. Bush’s administration, said Saudi Arabia considered it important for market perceptions that Russia be not just part of the alliance but seen as having a leadership role.

In return for his country’s relatively small contributions, Mr. Putin does appear to have heightened his influence over the oil markets. For instance, he effectively pre-empted the OPEC meeting in Vienna this week by announcing last weekend at the Group of 20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, that the current production cuts, which were set to expire at the end of June, would be extended.

By cooperating with the Saudis, analysts said, Mr. Putin may also be hoping to keep Riyadh from repeating the debacle of 2014, when it simply stopped trying to manage the markets. The resulting crash in prices meant a steep drop-off in revenue for Russia and other oil producers.

Mr. Putin also appears to have gained the confidence of Saudi Arabia’s chief policymaker, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi and Russian leaders met in Osaka in part to discuss cooperating further on oil matters, the Saudi oil minister, Khalid al-Falih, told journalists on Monday.

Analysts said that while extensive intervention in the market might make sense amid the uncertainty arising from the trade war between China and the United States, among other economic factors, it cannot work forever. OPEC has been cutting its output almost steadily since the end of 2016. The main result has been a gradual loss of its market share to shale oil operators in the United States and others outside OPEC, including Russia.

“It becomes futile if you are just lifting up prices and there is no end in sight,” said Ayham Kamel, a Middle East analyst at the research firm Eurasia Group.