NYTIMES/LINK CHANGE, ANALYSIS UPDATE 1 May/ If this week's donnybrook in Ukraine's parliament over a 25-year Black Sea lease extension seems bizarre...with dozens of eggs thrown, smoke bombs set-off and glued keyboards...just wait until the vote on PM Vladimir Putin's proposal to "unify" Russia's Gazprom with Ukraine's own NAK Naftogaz! “We talked about integration in nuclear energy, and we can do the same thing with gas,” Putin said after meeting with PM Mykola Azarov for a third time. “I propose unifying Gazprom and Naftogaz.” "This is part of Russia’s campaign to extend influence in Ukraine and would achieve its long-held ambition to control the transmission of gas,”says strategist Chris Weafer. “He’s probably trying out the extreme, knowing full well it would provoke a strong reaction inside Ukraine.”
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