You might have read about the dispute between Russia and the Ukraine over natural gas? Once again, the Russians are threatening to cut off gas supplies unless the Ukraine pays its gas bill. The problem here is that if gas is cut off, it affects more than just the Ukraine since Russian gas on its way to the UK and other parts of Europe have to pass through that country first.

You can read about the dispute on the BBC or any other news site but here is what you won't discover unless you dig a little deeper. Essentially, this is a dispute about an intra-company transfer of money. The company that owes the money is a Gazprom subsidiary. So, here we are about to face a gas shortage simply because one part of Gazprom owes another part of Gazprom money? That's like BP Exploration cutting off oil supplies to BP Refining so that it can't supply more gasoline because another part of BP didn't pay the other.

So what is really going on here? It's politics folks. Putin's government - which increasingly looks like a fascist regime now on a daily basis - doesn't like the new Ukraine President and PM because they favor the West over Russia. Yep - it is Russia pushing its weight around and pretending to be a world power again. You may have noticed the Russian's have also started testing western defences flying bombers over US warships and getting within 50 miles of Alaskan territory.

I'm sorry buy Putin looks more and more like a tin pot dictator determined to raise and fly the flag of Russian nationalism all over again. Nationalism = Facism. Russians might like this but its a move in the wrong direction. Sabre rattling and coersion of neighboring states isn't pretty nor nice and it makes Russia look pretty bad to the rest of the world. Once again, here is a world leader trying to turn the attention of Russians away from his failed policies and corrupt government by appealing to their nationalist instincts.

Will we ever learn from history?