Oh and another thing. A plural verb as given in examples above sounds a bit unnatural to me too, so I understand you here as well. I just know from prior experince that not everything that sounds wierd is wrong.

For example: "В этой связи" is now a complete and total norm mentioned I think even in the reference dictionary for tv news readers. Nevertherless, i would never say or write that, I'd use "В связи с этим" instead.

Back to our case - this usage may be something that was acceptable some years ago and now is dying out.