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Russia cut off the natural gas it sends to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday when a payment dispute escalated. Russia claims Ukraine siphoned off gas for its own use. Ukraine denies this. Russia stopped all natural gas supplies to Ukraine on 1 January, but kept supplies flowing to Europe through Ukraine’s pipelines until Wednesday, when all deliveries were stopped. At least 15 nations – Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey – all reported a halt in Russian gas shipments by Wednesday. Germany and Poland also reported substantial drops in supplies. Author and political economist William Engdahl believes the dispute forms part of a strategy by Ukraine to “gain geopolitical influence with the west.”