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Russia offered Ukraine a 20bn-dollar package to try to limit EU influence over the former Soviet republic, as oil giants BP and Statoil completed a big Azerbaijani gas deal that may cut EU reliance on Russian gas.Moscow has agreed to buy $15bn of Ukrainian debt and to reduce the price of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine by about a third.Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich signed the deals in a move likely to be seen as increasing Moscow's political and economic leverage over Kiev.Ukraine halted a planned integration agreement with the EU last month under pressure from Russia, sparking mass public protests by pro-EU demonstrators.The EU has tried to boost links with Ukraine in the last few years to ease concerns about gas supplies via the country, which have faced pressure since 2009 when a pricing row with Russia halted gas supplies to EU customers.EU countries took another step in weaning themselves off Russian gas supplies with the news on Tuesday that backers of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II gas field agreed to expand it, fuelling hopes of an alternative source of EU supplies.BP runs the field with a 28.8% stake, Azeri state power group SOCAR holds 16.7%, Norway's Statoil owns 15.5% and France's Total has a tenth, among others. BP said the decision would trigger plans to expand the South Caucasus Pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia, to build the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline across Turkey and to develop the Trans Adriatic pipeline across Greece, Albania and into Italy.BP said: "Together these projects, as well as gas transmission infrastructure to Bulgaria, will create a new southern gas corridor to Europe."Some observers were somewhat more critical. The Financial Times' Lex column on Wednesday pointed out that the project carries execution risks with it, given the myriad companies and governments involved. As well, said the FT, Shah Deniz will only meet a fraction of demand, and will not even arrive until 2019 at that.PW