Yana Paskova

Europe: Gas Crisis

Thousands of homes and businesses in Bulgaria shivered without much heat in January of 2009 after Russia, on which the Balkan country depends entirely for its natural gas needs, tried to make a political statement by blocking its gas flowing through Ukraine.

For The New York Times

A device used for central heating is seen in the "Maichin Dom" maternity ward in front of window revealing a snow blanket across rooftops of buildings on Sunday, January 11, 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
  
(R-L) Security guard Mimi Ivanova, 50, talks with materials organizer Stefan Dimitrov, 28, as he plays with an axe by a fire lit with garbage at an outdoor construction materials storage on Sunday, January 11, 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Dimitrov had just gathered firewood (foreground) for his home stove from broken construction crates.
  
People travel on a non-heated tram on Sunday, January 11, 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
     
  
Clothes for newborn babies are dried on a heater in the "Maichin Dom" maternity ward on Sunday, January 11, 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
  
Seventy-year-old Maria Pavlova sits in her living room by a small heater on Sunday, January 11, 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
   
The monkey Lari draws closer to a heater at the Sofia Zoo on Sunday, January 11, 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Warmth-loving zoo animals have received extra food, vitamins and heaters to ward off illness or death.
     
  
Obstetrician-gynecologist Emil Filipov walks down the hall of the "Maichin Dom" maternity ward on Sunday, January 11, 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria.