KGB's energy chokehold.

Roughly one-quarter of Europe's supply of natural gas is provided by Russia's state-owned Gazprom monopoly, and about 90 percent of that supply crosses the Ukraine by pipeline. That energy flow underwent a critical disruption when "Russia cut the amount of gas flowing into the pipeline" as a result of a price dispute with Ukraine, reported the January 2 Financial Times.

"Gas flows through Slovakia's long-distance pipeline--the main gateway for Russian gas to western Europe--had dropped 30 percent on Monday [January 2], according to the economy ministry," continued the report. "Hungary, one of the most vulnerable countries in the region because it relies on Russian gas for almost 40 percent of its total energy needs, saw supplies drop by half on Sunday night. Poland said it was receiving about a third less gas through the pipeline, while Austria's OMV, the oil and gas company, said its supplies of Russian gas had fallen by the same amount." Italy's gas supply dropped by a quarter, and France's dropped by 30 percent.

This dramatic disruption in Europe's energy supplies took place less than a week after Andrei Illarionov, Vladimir Putin's market-oriented, anti-communist economic adviser, resigned to protest Putin's increasingly dictatorial rule. Among his accusations was that Putin was using natural gas as "a weapon" to punish independence-minded Ukraine and to consolidate power over the other former Soviet republics.

Belgian journalist Paul Bellien points out that Putin's show of force coincided with Russia's assumption of the chairmanship of the G-8 nations "for the first time in history." "Though the Russian economy is peanuts compared to those of the U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and Italy, it has been admitted into the club of developed democracies because Russia has enough oil and gas to keep Western Europe supplied for years to come," observes Bellien. Thus the point of Putin's power play is obvious--and ominous.