Russian diplomacy Chief Sergey Lavrov shall request from the actual Serbian leadership to keep its actual stance towards Ukraine during chairing the OSCE and prevent condemnation of Russia. He shall also repeat Moscow’s wish to buy the EPS, the Blic learns.
Lavrov’s visit to Serbia, although agreed with his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic in Vienna on May 6 as we learn, is taking place after constructive talks of the Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During talks with Serbian Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and President Tomislav Nikolic, Lavrov shall convey to them Moscow’s two chief goals – Serbian foreign policy and Russian interest in energy. The Blic source, a well informed foreign diplomat says that Lavrov shall direct his meetings to ‘reminding the Serbian side about agreements’ but also getting clear guarantees for Russian interests.
As the Blic learns Moscow shall mention to expect from Serbia to keep its present stance towards Ukraine which is still closer to the Russian stance. That means that there shall be no condemnation of Russian annexation of Crimea and military involvement in the east of the country. Lavrov shall express expectation that Serbia shall not follow the EU in emposing of sanction on Russia.
– However what Moscow is going to insist on today and in the period to come is that Serbia, as the country that shall chair the OSCE, not only keep the present stance but prevent condemnation of Russia by that organization as well. The intention is also that Serbia prevents some concrete actions that the OSCE might undertake – the Blic source says.
The second crucial goal of the visit is yet another in a series of attempts of finalizing the energy story that people well informed about Russian-Serbian relations interprete as Serbia’s economic-political dependance from Russia.
– Moscow has interest that their companies purchase the EPS. Russian officials are trying to agree that bilaterally as it was the case with the naphtha-gas agreement. It means that Serbia is expected not to announce tender when it makes decision over sale of the EPS – the foreign diplomat says.
This diplomat also claims that Lavrov shall request from Serbia to voice its stance regarding the Southern Stream.
– The Rusian officials have already reprimanded some of the Serbian officials because of the stance that the Southern Stream problem should be solved between Brussels and Moscow. Lavrov shall certainly try to calm Serbia’s concern over the Southern Stream the construction of which has been presently blocked – our source says. This diplomat also says that Moscow ‘has been increasingly bothered by the fact that Serbia has no longer as big need as earlier for Russian help over Kosovo’ since the actual power has signed the Brussels Agreement.
Source Blic
