The Economist: Black Sea woes
Activists put up a banner in front of the Trade Union House in Odessa, southern Ukraine, on May 2, 2015, in memory of people who died in a fire at the Trade Union House in May 2014.
Almost exactly a year ago, on May 2 2014, two groups of protesters clashed in central Odessa. A heady post-revolutionary haze hung over Ukraine. A weak government had taken power in Kiev after the Maidan protests had forced President Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country. Russia had annexed Crimea and pro-Russian rebels were taking over parts of the eastern Donbas region. Odesa, with its many Russian-speakers, might have been next.
