There has been a lot of back and forth about America's dependence on Middle-Eastern oil, but Europe's dependence on Russian oil is bringing the whole European Union to its knees,

The heads of the Russian and Ukrainian gas companies held a surprise meeting today after the EU gave Russia 24 hours to restore gas supplies.

The EU issued its ultimatum last night after all deliveries to Ukraine were halted in a dispute over unpaid bills.

...Significantly, the EU failed to spell out what action it planned to take if its warning was ignored.

...Supplies have dwindled throughout this week and today Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic confirmed their pipelines were empty.

Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey are already out of gas.

Italy suffered a 90 per cent plunge, France was down 70 per cent and Germany was affected for the first time.

...The cutoff has also showed the first signs of hitting the European economy as the Hungarian unit of the Japanese automaker Suzuki said it was halting production because of restrictions on industrial users of gas.

There is little sign of resolution to the row with Moscow and Kiev both blaming each other for cutting supply.

Rumor has it that Europe is threatening to whine piteously if the oil doesn't start flowing again and if that doesn't work, they're going to pull out the big guns: sternly worded letters and ferocious finger wagging. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail and things won't get to that point.

PS: Has anyone informed Vladimir Putin that Barack Obama is about to become President of the United States? If not, it's possible that solving this whole crisis could be just that simple!