offer propaganda to allies like the claim that the ethnic russians are in danger. now, rule number two. follow the money. after russia, the ukrainian republic was the soviet union's most important economic component. it produced quadruple the output of the next republic on that list. today it remains the second largest exporter of grain in the world. putin's greatest leverage isn't his weapons, it's energy. russia is the world's largest oil exporter and second in natural gas. a lot of countries rely on russia for a lot of power which makes russia powerful. ukraine is almost completely dependent on russia for energy. you can imagine if russia just turned off the lights? you don't have to. russia who supplies almost a quarter of the natural gas. talks broke done and today russia's gas monopoly gave the