Now that the cold snap is over...

...The Europeans will be receiving their natural gas from Russia.

I haven't talked about this one much, though just about every government in Europe, including their 'federal' EU government spent a lot of diplomatic time and resources in trying to get the gas flowing again.

Here's what I didn't realize until I read today's story about how the gas will be flowing Monday or Tuesday: The source of the problem was Ukraine's unwillingness to pay for the gas at EU prices. Even though they demand their separation from Russia and want to become a part of the EU, they still expected a 'We were once Russia' discount!

'Gas to flow' after Moscow deal(bbc)
'Under the deal, Ukraine will start paying for Russian gas at the much-higher European prices from next year.'

Now I don't trust the Russians as much as the next guy, but I didn't realize this whole thing got so bad because the Ukrainians didn't want to pay list price...

THIS is whyeuropeans&russianspaytaxes.