The first frosts of winter have already dusted the spectacular city of St. Petersburg with a powder of glistening ice. The air outside feels sharp and crisp. Russians hurry along the elegant boulevards, wrapped up tight against the biting cold. Russia's winter, its annual deep freeze, has begun.
But this year there's more than just a bitter chill in the air. For the past nine months relations with the West have become decidedly frosty too.
On the face of it the problem is Ukraine.
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