Going back to the food/energy/money dependence thing: What can a country without independence in those fronts do? In the short-term? Obey (which is what Krugman was - in my view correctly - saying).

A government with vision (or interest in the common good) would raise the autonomy on those fronts during the next couple of years so that it would be in a reasonable bargaining position in the future.

I think the options on the table seem to be the worse:

1. Obey, but not with the objective to get out of the dependent position

2. Risk disobeying, but too soon would mean probably suffering (starvation/poverty et al).