firtash s company wasn t making anything, it wasn t even necessarily moving anything, it wasn t really doing anything at all except getting paid. ukraine could just as easily have bought the gas with no middleman and no markup. but putin wanted both the middleman and the markup becausebecause dmitri would turn out to be handy and so would the assurance of fantastical corruption at the very heart of the ukrainian state and so would the prospect of all the richest and most power people in ukraine to be dependent on putin s whim. it cost gazprom a pretty penny but it was worth it. firtash woof plenty of cash to spread around to shape ukraine in the ways that putin would appreciate. some of that cash went back to moscow as tribute. even more of it went to prop up the pro-russia political party, which meant a whole bunch of that money ended up in the bank accounts of mercenary american