![ukraine](http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/52b3614beab8ea17332deb13-862-1024/bb2obm3iyaaei_v.jpg?maxX=1200)
AFP
If you question the strategic location of Ukraine, check out this map that Agence France-Presse made last in December - two months before protesters in Kiev forced President Viktor Yanukovych out of office.
Russia has now $4 the strategic Baltic Sea peninsula of Crimea, and markets are $4 at the possibility that Russian troops that are being built up on the border could enter eastern Ukraine.
As the international tug-of-war for Ukraine continues, the tension involving economic relations in the region - especially regarding gas flow from Russia to both Ukraine and Europe - will increase.
One example of this tension is described by Noah Barkin of Reuters>$4: "Heavily dependent on Russian gas and closer to Moscow than any other leading western nation, Germany faces a major policy dilemma as the Ukraine crisis descends into a Cold War-style confrontation of tit-for-tat threats and ultimatums."