Business is business.(Brief Article)

Poland objects to Gazprom's Ukrainian bypass. But there is more to its opposition than meets the eye

Gazprom has scored a coup this week in persuading most of western Europe's leading gas firms to back -- in the feasibility stage at least -- its Ukrainian bypass plan (see p1). But the news has not gone down well in Kiev and Warsaw.

Ukraine was under the impression that a "new era" in its troubled gas relations with Russia was about to dawn, following an agreement between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kuchma (see p3). Poland objects to not being consulted about plans for a pipeline across its territory.

This year, …