When studying the gas politics of the post-Soviet states, researchers focus predominantly on the mutual interdependencies inherited from the Soviet period. These are recognized to be the key structural constraints to the political behavior of the post-Soviet elites. As of yet, no one analyzed the energy discourses and their enabling and constraining role in the policy-making either in Russia or in Ukraine. In this paper, I seek to fill this research gap through analysis of Ukraine’s gas discourse on domestic gas prices in 2005-2010. In particular, I argue that politicization of this issue since 2006 institutionalized a certain action pattern that is not easy to change.
