They say that for many, addiction is not a choice, but a disease. And for those of us who are Russia news junkies, we have lately had to subsist on a steady diet of repetitive, off-target reports on the Russia-Ukraine energy dispute. It’s easy to get lost in all the circular logic, and many people have already floated away from rationality.  Now that the dispute appears to be wrapping up with an agreement for monitors, it’s time to ask ourselves some questions as part of a postwar autopsy. Have we learned anything from the last time around? It certainly doesn’t seem so, and the fact that there are no blameless parties is serving to blind us further.  On the one hand, Europe is increasingly accepting of whatever destabilizing conduct Russia see fit, while also becoming tired of the soap opera of Ukrainian politics, stunting progress in a country that deserves better.  However, just because we’ve become addicts of the gas wars, that doesn’t mean there aren’t very important and worrying trends unraveling right under our noses.

Consider some of the important lessons to be drawn from the situation: