As CNN says, Ukraine “should have seen this one coming,” and they almost certainly did anticipate that the next phase of the war would be economic. In fact, the new government in Kyiv may have assumed that raising prices on Russian energy imports would be the first phase of the conflict, not the seizure and annexation of Crimea. Over the last few days, though, Gazprom has raised gas prices by 80% to Ukraine as Russian troops still gather on their common border:

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk affirmed that Kyiv expected this all along:

Russia raised the gas price for Ukraine on Thursday for the second time this week, almost doubling it in three days and piling pressure on a neighbor on the brink of bankruptcy in the crisis over Crimea.

The increase, announced in Moscow by Russian natural gas producer Gazprom, means Ukraine will pay 80 percent more for its gas than before the initial increase on Monday.

Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said the latest move, two weeks after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region, was unacceptable and warned that he expected Russia to increase pressure on Kiev by limiting supply to his country.

“There is no reason why Russia would raise the gas price for Ukraine … other than one – politics,” Yatseniuk told Reuters in an interview in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

“We expect Russia to go further in terms of pressure on the gas front, including limiting gas supplies to Ukraine.”

Read more plus video:http://hotair.com/archives/2014/04/04/vi...80-for-ukraine/