SERBIA, RUSSIA SEAL ENERGY DEAL...
Serbia's President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica flew to Moscow on January 25 to sign a major energy deal in which Serbia will sell control over the country's largest oil company, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), to Gazprom, the state-owned Russian energy giant. In exchange, Gazprom promised to build a storage facility in Serbia and to route a pipeline through Serbia. Full details of the route of the pipeline remain to be decided, but Serbian Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilic said, according to the Serbian broadcaster B92, that the pipeline will lead into Western Europe -- presumably as part of the mainline South Stream pipeline -- and will also have branches leading south and into central Serbia. Full financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but AP reported that Serbian Energy Minister Aleksandar Popovic, who also attended the ceremony in Moscow, "confirmed reports that Russia offered $600 million...and an additional $730 million to modernize the run-down company." According to B92, however, Ilic said there remains room to amend the price that Russia will pay for NIS. He also stated that the deal would provide Serbia with all the gas it needs, create thousands of jobs, bring in 2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in work for Serbian contractors, and could earn Serbia up to 200 million euros ($293 million) in transit fees each year. Some sense of the strategic outlook for Serbia was hinted at by Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller, who said that "cooperation with Gazprom opens the opportunity for Serbia to become an energy center not only in the Balkans, but also in Europe." He added that at least 10 billion cubic meters of gas will flow through Serbia. That is equivalent to about one-third of South Stream's capacity, Bloomberg reported. Within Serbia, the deal has also been criticized primarily for the method of negotiation, with some arguing that bundling NIS's sale together with the routing of the pipeline weakened Serbia's negotiating ability. There is also speculation that the deal may have been affected by the upcoming runoff in the presidential election, in which Tadic badly needs the support of Kostunica and his Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) if he is to be reelected. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who attended the signing of the deal, said the planned pipeline "network will be long-lasting, reliable, highly efficient, and, what is very important, help boost energy supplies to Serbia and the entire European continent." Russia and Bulgaria agreed in mid-January that part of the South Stream pipeline should pass through Bulgaria. There was no immediate response from the EU, but it has previously been critical of the lack of transparency in the deal.
... AND DISCUSS KOSOVA.
The future of Kosova was also a subject of discussion when the Serbian delegation visited Moscow on January 25. No details were provided to the public, but President Putin reiterated Russia's support for Serbia's claim to Kosova. He also reiterated that he "is categorically against a unilateral declaration of independence for Kosovo," which he said could "seriously damage the system of international law and have negative consequences for the Balkans and affect stability in other regions". For his part, Serbian President Tadic said that "Serbia very deeply respects the position of Russia on Kosovo." The Serbian government denies that the sale of NIS to Gazprom is in any way connected to Russia's support for Serbia's effort to retain sovereignty over Kosova.
Fonte: Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, Newsletter.
