The last time Gazprom played around with deals and “memorandums of understanding” in North Africa, it was the con of the decade: The preemptively announced cooperation agreement with Algeria’s state-held exporter Sonatrach, which terrified Europe and cornered Italian companies into hasty agreements with Gazprom. Never mind that in the end the scary deal turned out to be a bluff – but by then it was too late. Today’s news might be more substantial…