Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Winter Is Coming To Ukraine

Konstantin Chernichkin/Reuters

In Ukraine, Winter Is Coming -- Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast

Once again Russia brandishes the threat of a gas cutoff to squeeze Kiev and coerce Europe. Folks are taking cold showers already, and the weather soon will be glacial.

MOSCOW — Fur coats may well be in high demand this winter among those glamorous ladies in Ukraine who can afford them. But many others will be happy just to get a hot shower before bundling up in their icy apartments.

Once again, the Kremlin is threatening its trouble neighbor with a long-term cutoff of gas supplies, and already there are signs that as the weather gets colder, Russia is pumping less gas, not more, through the pipelines to Western Europe.

The pro-European Revolution that erupted last November, the conflict with Russia and the loss of the Crimea, a new civil war, and refugee and economic crises over the summer weakened the hands of President Petro Poroshenko and other proven advocates of European values in Ukraine. Now they hope that their powerful neighbors to the west will not let them freeze, literally, in what feels more and more like the beginnings of a new Cold War.

Read more ....

My Comment: All of my family and friends in Ukraine are saying the same thing ....  it is going to be a cold winter, and can they visit me for a month or two in January (I live in Montreal).

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