For the fourth year running, Russia and Ukraine are deadlocked in their annual gas contract talks, generating fears that supplies in the region and in the European Union might be interrupted over the new year.

Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas group, has toured EU capitals to explain why, if the gas goes off on January 1, it will all be Ukraine’s fault. The company wants to pre-empt charges that it is all a dastardly Kremlin campaign to hit Kiev’s pro-west administration.