Russians in progress of retaining EU's energy dependece on Natural Gas

The Russians will sign an energy deal with the Serbian prime minister and president, and in it there are plans to build yet another natural gas pipeline to further fuel the European energy demand. This meeting which is scheduled on friday (1/25/2008) will be in moscow and in it "Russia's state gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom, [will] acquire a controlling stake in Serbia's state oil company, NIS." The Serbians were interested in helping this deal after Putin won much support from Bulgaria. The 550 mile long pipeline will run under the Black Sea and to Bulgaria where it will branch off to several locations. The pipeline will cost approximately $15 billon and will help the Russians increase their chokehold that they have on the EU. With another pipeline the Russians will be able to transport more natural gas into the European Nations and with that they will make it so that the Europeans are even more reliant on the Russians for energy.