Thus the Financial Times today. “Agreement forestalls potential winter energy crisis for Europe,” elaborates the newspaper. This is an eleventh-hour deal by all counts. The negotiations lasted some thirty hours, too. Alexander Novak, Russia’s energy minister, said that Moscow had made this “compromise” to show that it was a reliable partner for the European Union. Of course, the Union has done its part to make sure that Ukraine can pay its share of the luxury. Interestingly, the article barely mentions Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. It was he who had engineered the compromise in question, no doubt. And Novak is a humble servant of his master. At the moment, Putin is making sure that the Union, and especially Germany, appreciates his goodwill. His tough stance has to do with America rather than Europe. In a sense, Russia and America are now vying for the subcontinent’s attentions. It is a rich market, to be sure. Rich and powerless, to be a bit more precise.