Russia - June 18th, 2014

Russia's state-owned natural gas company Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on Monday, due to the latter's failure to deliver an owed $2 billion for past deliveries. The move comes at the same time that pro-Russian rebels are fighting in the eastern part of Ukraine, further complicating the political situation. This shutdown could affect European gas supplies, as it did in past incidents in 2006 and 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/world/europe/russia-gazprom-increases-pressure-on-ukraine-in-gas-dispute.html