Insight - Sanctions bind Russia's energy elite to Putin

A general view shows the headquarters of Gazprom on the day of the annual general meeting of the company's shareholders in Moscow, June 27, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An offer by Gazprom to help rival Rosneft salvage an Arctic oil project shows how tightly sanctions have bound Russia's political and business elite together in the Ukraine crisis - an unintended consequence of the West's punitive measures.

Some Gazprom executives now say this month's little noticed proposal to loan Rosneft a drilling rig was "theoretical". It was quietly made after U.S. sanctions put in doubt a project with ExxonMobil to drill for oil in the Kara Sea.