Two protest movements have taken over the front pages in recent weeks.

First, 70 were killed when growing tensions in the Ukraine spilled over into full-scale revolution and ended with the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych. Meanwhile on the other side of the world in Venezuela, protesters took to the streets demanding better security, a free media and the resignation of President Nicolás Maduro.

In Venezuela, where leaders have failed to translate the largest reserves of petroleum in the world into the provision of even basic food, oil and its wasted possibilities are always at the heart of the debate. But if we look a little deeper in the Ukraine, the question of energy has played no small role in the eruption of violence on the streets of Kiev, where Ukrainians rely on Russian gas for over 50 percent of their energy needs.

Where revolution comes, energy never lies far beneath the surface.

The Ukraine is a country with a population of 44 million and is the largest country in Europe with a vast surface area stretching from the heart of Europe to the borders of Russia. It has long been a polarized nation, dominated by fervent pro-Russians concentrated in the East, and those further West who look to Europe for their future. Even language becomes a political hot potato in a country going through a profound identity crisis.

This identity crisis lies behind the violence in Kiev. The problems began in Vilnius last November, where Yanukovych rejected an association agreement and free-trade accord prepared by the European Union. The deal would have meant accelerated integration into Europe, and the snub caught European leaders unaware.

Soon afterward, Russia responded by offering the Ukraine an attractive economic package, including a hefty discount on Russian gas imports. Western-oriented protesters took to the streets to demand the government backtrack on the deals, which eventually led to the downfall of Yanukovych, who at the time of writing was believed to have fled to the Crimea.

Russia, which has been on an international high on the back of the Sochi Olympics, reacted harshly to the events. President Dimitri Medvedev accused the interim Ukrainian authorities of conducting an "armed mutiny," and the future of current gas trade arrangement looks uncertain.

Natural gas has long been used as a weapon by Russia in its efforts to keep former Soviet nations in its sphere of influence and to warn them from getting too cosy. The warning signal came loud and clear during the energy import crisis of 2009, when Russia threatened to halt all gas supplies to the Ukraine, and as a consequence to much of the rest of Europe. The very pipelines that carry the gas into the Ukraine are tellingly named things like Bratsvo ("brotherhood") and Soyuz ("union").

Before the deal struck in December, the Ukraine had been paying over $400 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian natural gas, but the deal allowed them a discount of almost a third to $268.5 as the Russians tried to woo their neighbors away from Europe.

Reportedly those concessions didn't come for free, and Yanukovych is accused of handing over vast sectors of the Ukrainian economy to de facto Russian control. Russia has said it will keep supplying gas to the Ukraine at the discounted rate negotiated in December until the agreement lapses in March, but what Russia's next move will be is difficult to predict.

Following the rejection of the Russian patronage, there are fears of default unless the country manages to put together an economic aid package to fill the gap the Russians had promised to fill. The U.S., the EU and the IFC are thought to be the likely providers of an economic aid package to the tune of $35 billion over the next two years, but the details remain unclear.

Just as much as the tanks reportedly lining up on the Russian border remind the new leaders of the Ukraine of the might of their Eastern neighbor, the threat to energy supplies will be at the forefront of everyone's minds.

So far they are standing their ground. In response to Russian condemnation of the regime change, the Ukrainians reacted with insolence when state oil company Naftogaz slashed gas imports from Russia's Gazprom from 147 million cubic meters to 28 million, as of Feb. 24. This means another gap that will need to be filled, and quickly.

What then of Ukranian shale reserves? Just as concerns of overdependence on the oil-rich Middle East were eased when the U.S. began to exploit its shale reserves, perhaps Ukraine can look beneath its soil for the answer to its geopolitical quandaries.

In 2013, both Shell and Chevron signed deals to explore shale formations in the country. Exxon was also on the verge of signing a deal to invest $735 million when negotiations were suspended as the crisis unfolded. Equally, import diversification projects such as the Southern Energy Corridor carrying gas from Azerbaijan have been being crafted for years.

However even the compromise project decided upon for the Southern Corridor will take years to come online. And as I have written on these pages before, the shale revolution may not be as exportable as people like to think. It also relies on any energy cash cow being managed responsibly and transparently by a country's leaders, and it would be naïve to think that Ukrainian corruption went out of the door with Yanukovych and his lavish palace.

Yulia Timoshenko, newly released from jail and touted as the potential next president, is not untainted by corruption allegations. Ukraine is not the only country in Europe home to shale resources, and energy companies will be revisiting their risk matrix when considering their future presence in a post-revolution Ukraine.

The ecstasy of revolution and the scandalous storming of Yanukovych's presidential compound brought an air of optimism to a country that had simply had enough of Russian bullying. But that optimism is mixed with a large dose of nerves.

The new Ukrainian leadership will need to prove to energy companies that it can be a stable country for long-term investment. As the era of cheap Russian gas comes to an end, they will sorely need them.