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What did 6 December 2019 follow in the region?
Summary
A look back at two reports from the days before 6 December 2019: a deadly fire in Odesa and a new Russia–China gas pipeline.
What was the region absorbing as 6 December 2019 arrived? Two reports from the preceding days framed it, and they point in very different directions.
The first was local and human. On 4 December 2019, a fire in Odesa left 12 people dead and 32 injured, with 8 more missing. Those figures were the reported toll at that point, and the missing were still unaccounted for.
The second was geopolitical. On 2 December 2019, Russia and China inaugurated their joint Power of Siberia gas pipeline, a project that linked the two countries in energy terms.
Two stories, one week
The two reports have no stated connection, and it would be wrong to invent one. Taken together, they show how a single week can combine a domestic tragedy in Ukraine with a major energy announcement involving Ukraine's neighbour Russia.
For readers looking back, the Odesa figures are the more concrete. The pipeline launch is a marker of Moscow's partnership with Beijing. Both were part of the news picture around 6 December 2019.
