The Week Is Incomplete Without a Gas Crisis

Washington Post: Masked state security officers armed with automatic weapons raided the headquarters of Ukraine's national gas company Wednesday in a dramatic escalation of the feud between the country's top leaders during a crippling financial crisis.

President Viktor Yushchenko said the operation was part of a criminal investigation into the firm, Naftogaz, which was at the center of the dispute with Russia this year that left gas customers in much of Eastern Europe shivering.

But Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko condemned the raid as an attempt by "corrupt groups" to disrupt the company's operations just days before Ukraine must make a critical payment to Russia or risk another gas cutoff.

Given: Ukraine is falling apart.

Question: Why are "state security officers" always masked? And why do the newspapers feel compelled to tell us they are every single time?

[Edit: We've had far too many pictures of Putin of late, so here's one of Yushchenko taking a dip, for the hell of it.]