As for me, the motto of this year could be: partying with illusions.

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Crucial points of 2014 in my opinion (in a somewhat chronological order):

1. The year started with Sochi Olympic Games (see: #SochiProblems);
2. then the Ukraine crisis turned into a full-scale civil war in Donbass;
3. Crimea‘s reunion with Russia (btw it was supported by Mikhail Gorbachev) positioned in the West as ‘annexation‘;
4. Odessa massacre;
5. MH17 tragedy;
6. Russia’s Eastern/BRICS policy (deals with China, India, Turkey, Iran, South Africa, etc.);
7. unprecedented anti-Russian rhetoric/propaganda in Western media,
8. and Western sanctions against Russia as well as Russian counter-sanctions as symptoms of the second Cold War;
9. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL aka ISIS aka IS);
10. oil price decline and rouble’s drop.

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Tune of the year 2014: