Russia started the new year by cutting off supplies of natural gas to Ukraine, its neighbor and former vassal.(Brief article)

* Russia started the new year by cutting off supplies of natural gas to Ukraine, its neighbor and former vassal. President Vladimir Putin is putting into practice his concept of reconstituting the Soviet Union, whose collapse, he said recently, was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." Where the Soviets focused on tanks and missiles, Putin focuses on energy resources, and he has been gathering them all--including the gigantic company Gazprom--into his own hands. His candidate lost in the Orange Revolution that brought Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency of Ukraine. To raise the price of ...