Ukraine needs austerity.
Unfortunately for Kiev, that is exactly what won’t play well in the Russophone east and south of the country.
Its stuck between a rock and a hard place.
For the Russians, their evident attitude is you made your bed with the EU, now go lie down in it.
Kremlin uses gas as a weapon
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/09/opinion/ed-gazprom9
Russia is wielding its resources to cow its former satellites and keep Europe in check.
January 09, 2009
“On the surface, the battle between Russia and Ukraine that has choked off natural-gas supplies to much of Europe in the dead of a cold winter is a purely commercial dispute. Deeper down, it’s something more menacing — part of what looks like a calculated strategy by Russia to regain influence over countries that were once part of the Soviet empire and to neutralize European opposition.
Gazprom, Russia’s state gas monopoly, is as much a policy arm of the Kremlin as it is a company. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is its former chairman. It owns a big Russian media company and operates it as a government propaganda arm. It is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and accounts for a quarter of Russia’s budget. The government controls a majority of its board, and though Gazprom’s management decision-making structure is murky, most analysts believe the man who really calls the shots is Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who once argued in a scholarly paper that Russia’s energy resources were the key to promoting its national interests.”