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This week’s R&D covers war tensions between Russia and Ukraine.  The United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany have made diplomatic overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin to avert war with Ukraine.  Russia is demanding that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) not made Ukraine a member and draw back some of its forces in Eastern Europe, conditions that Western countries have said are unacceptable.  Even though reports in the middle of the week suggested that Russia was drawing back some of its troops, other accounts have questioned those assertions, noting that Russia maintains a sizeable troop buildup in Crimea, on its proper border with Ukraine, and along the border that Ukraine shares with Belarus.  Since Russia controls 10% of the world’s oil supply, any war that causes a disruption to those supplies, especially because the United States is threatening punitive sanctions on Russia if it invades, it could cause gas prices in the U.S. to rise.