Russian Aggression and European Gas Basins

I was bored at work, so I decided to start looking for whatever maps I could find of Eurasia that had anything to do with natural gas, oil, and the pipelines (both real and proposed) to transport all of these resources. Then I came across a couple of maps that made a TON of pieces fall into place.

First, a quick map showing where in Ukraine the conflicts are taking place

Ga

And an ethnic breakdown of the country

Click for Source

So what did I find?

A report titled World Shale Gas Resources: An Initial Assessment of 14 Regions Outside the United States, by Advanced Resources International, Inc, published in April of 2011. The map let a realization wash over me, chilling me to the bone when I realized what I was looking at (page 149 of the pdf)

It all makes a lot more sense now. Absolutely everyone who has been shitting themselves over recent Russian aggression is sitting on an assessed basin of shale gas. 

I mean, Russia simulating nuclear attacks against Sweden, Sweden deciding to permanently station troops on Gotland, Russian submarines in Swedish waters (and Sweden's hilarious "This way if you are gay" response), Russian troops amassing in Belgorod, despite it not being nearly as Russian as Donetsk or Luhansk nor being part of the land bridge to Crimea or helping to control the entire border of the Sea of Azov, why the Baltic states are collectively building a joint air defense system and reintroducing the draft, it all just falls into place.

"Wow. TON of stuff just started to make sense to me."