The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin

In February 2014, police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing a hundred of them. Civil war seemed imminent. Three European foreign ministers hurriedly flew in and worked out a deal with Yanukovych and opposition politicians to hasten presidential elections. But the government was disintegrating. Yanukovych’s own security detail vanished. Yanukovych abruptly fled to Russia. The United States and the European Union immediately announced their support for the new interim government. One of its first acts was to ban Russian as an “official” language, a position that it had shared with the Ukrainian language. Russian was the prime tongue of many, particularly in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. This unfortunate mistake was quickly rectified, but it had a lasting impact. “The Europeans prevented them from doing that,” said Putin. “But the signal had already been sent.”