Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed the merging of Gazprom and Ukraine’s state gas monopoly Naftogaz.

“We talked about integration in nuclear energy, and we can do the same thing with gas. I propose unifying Gazprom and Naftogaz,” Putin stated Friday after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mykola Azarov, in Sochi, southern Russia, as cited by Bloomberg.

According to the Gazprom CEO, Alexei Miller, the idea to merge the two companies has been met “with an enthusiastic positive response” by government officials of both Russia and Ukraine.

The governments of the two countries will meet in May in order to discuss the potential merger of Gazprom and Naftogaz, Miller said.

Earlier this week Russian PM Putin suggested forming a nuclear energy holding company between Russia and Ukraine. As a follow-up on Friday, the head of the Russian state-owned company Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, stated that one of Rosatom’s subsidiaries, Atomenergomash, and Ukraine’s Turboatom could set up a joint venture on parity principle.

Last week Russia and Ukraine sealed a deal extending the Russian Black Sea Navy lease of the Sevastopol naval base in exchange for a 30% discount for Ukraine on Russian natural gas supplies.

The ratification of the agreement earlier this week led to violent protests in Kiev and a fight in Parliament as the opposition led by former PM Yuliya Tymoshenko opposed the moves taken by new President Viktor Yanukovich.

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