Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

the Kremlin, the West scrambled to “reset” relations with Russia. But the fragility of the situation was painfully exposed in January 2009 when a dispute between Russia and Ukraine over unpaid bills and gas prices left Ukraine without heat in the depth of winter and interrupted flow through the pipelines running west to Europe.62 The dispute was resolved only with EU mediation and a price increase for Gazprom that would become an albatross around the neck of Prime Minister Tymoshenko. Though Ukraine was far from being headline news, it was already in 2008–2009 drifting into an explosive state. As Austrian finance minister Josef Proell presciently remarked in February 2009: “Ukraine is a very important keystone country and we must avoid a domino effect inside the EU, if there is economic and political catastrophe in such a huge neighbouring country. . . . We don’t see this scenario developing now. But we must prepare and keep an eye on Ukraine.”