After the Revolution

Throw that blanket back off; the second round of the Russia-Ukraine gas fights ended today.
But there is so much more to this than just a spat over a utility bill.
According to an article in the Financial Times:
[T]he Russians do not regard Ukraine as a serious independent country and the Ukrainians do not regard the Russians as trustworthy […]

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Toss on another blanket; the gas fights are back.
State-owned Russian gas company Gazprom has cut gas supplies to Ukraine in half over the past two days.
Gazprom says Ukraine has not paid $1.5 billion in gas bills.
Ukraine’s gas company, Naftogaz, says Ukraine has made most of the payments but can’t complete the rest because Russia and Ukraine’s intermediary gas trading company has yet […]

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Russian police arrested Semyon Mogilevich, a 61-year old mob boss, on tax evasion charges last week.
Mogilevich is allegedly connected to RosUkrEnergo, a trading company half owned by Russian energy company Gazprom and half controlled by two Ukrainian businessmen.
RosUkrEnergo, an entity with a mashed multisyllabic name straight out of the USSR, was created in 2006 to resolve an energy dispute culminating with Russia’s cutting off Ukraine’s natural gas supply.
Ukrainian Prime […]

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