..Like most American Exceptionalists, her bluster and posturing can be reverse-engineered to find the banal truth about US foreign policy.

For example, her steadfast belief that Ukraine “should not be a pawn in a great-power conflict but rather an independent nation” might have something to do with Chevron’s 50-year lease to develop Ukraine’s shale gas reserves.

It’s the gas, stupid

When that lease was signed on November 5, 2013, it stoked Russian fears about losing its influence on, and a major gas market in, a former satellite.

It also came on the eve of the much-disputed trade deal with the European Union that, once abandoned due to Russian pressure, led to the toppling of Ukraine’s government…

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http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2325091/ukraine_chevron_condi_rice_and_shale_gas_join_the_dots.html