Serbia says "No" to Russian Gasprom Deal

92 understands Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and New Serbia (NS) ministers were outvoted at today's cabinet meeting.

Only six ministers voted in favor of the agreement, while DS ministers abstained. G17 Plus ministers, meanwhile, did not attend the meeting "in protest at another attempt by Vojislav Koštunica to misuse the technical government for the purposes of the national coalition's election campaign."

Earlier, the prime minister had expressed his expectation that the energy agreement with Russia would be adopted at the meeting, and that the agreement would be passed on to parliament for ratification.

President Boris Tadiš warned yesterday that the technical government did not have a mandate to do this.

The new dispute between the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS)-New Serbia (NS) coalition and the Democratic Party (DS) came in the wake of a statement from the Russian government regarding its expectation that officials in Belgrade would confirm the document, so that the project could be carried out within the envisaged time frame.

According to Russian Energy Minister Victor Khristenko, the Russian side expects the Serbian parliament to confirm the agreement as soon as possible to avoid any unnecessary delays.

Koštunica’s cabinet said that the energy agreement would be on the agenda at today’s cabinet meeting.

“Given that it’s an agreement that Serbia’s senior officials have stood behind, I believe that the government and parliament will make a decision that will be in the best interests of Serbia and all its citizens,” read the prime minister’s statement.

However, Tadić believes that the technical government is currently unable to work at full capacity, and cannot confirm the agreement and send it to parliament for ratification.

According to Radio Television Serbia, the president said that he supported Russia’s desire for clean relations, but opposed the use of such an important issue as the energy agreement for campaigning purposes.

Deputy Prime Minister Božidar Đelić told B92 that the agreement was already being implemented and that ratification was just a technical matter.

“After the concession, now another non-existent problem is being created. As far as the energy agreement is concerned, the DS supports the agreement, and if it is in the position to do so, will propose its ratification after May 11 so that parliament can adopt it, and there the DS will vote for the adoption of the ratification law,” Đelić said.

Koštunica’s advisor Branislav Ristivojević accused the coalition formed around the DS of trying to block the agreement.

“If the DS is looking for an excuse not to confirm this agreement and if Boris Tadić has forgotten that he was personally present as a guarantor that the agreement would be adopted, that only means that the new coalition of Čanak-Dinkić-DS wants to block the implementation of this vitally important agreement for Serbia. It’s now up to the DS ministers to choose whether they will defend Serbia’s interests, or work according to the rules of the new Čanak-Dinkić-DS coalition", said Ristivojević.

Russia and Serbia signed the agreement on January 25 in Moscow for the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, and the sale of a 51 percent stake in the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) to Russian Gazprom for EUR 400mn plus a further EUR 500mn worth of modernization investments.

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Jesus beat the devil with two sticks. Colossian 2:13,15

Proud American!

I hope they don't sign any deals with the Russians.

Serbia did not say NO to GAZPROM.

There is a wide consent within the government that Russian GAZPROM will buy Serbian NIS.

But the Democratic party wants to block the parliament ratification of the deal before the new parliament is constituted in May. If the parliament ratificated the deal now, Kostunica will take the credit for it in the elections to come. That is the only reason. Just prolonging of the ratification.

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Albanians are Islamo-fascists supported by Bin Laden and trained in Al-Qaeda terrorist camps.
Albanians were (chronologically): Turkish horse breeders, Hitler's little pawns, Stalin's servants and today they are Uncle Sam's "allies".
Albanians from Kosovo ethnically cleansed more than 250,000 non-Albanians: Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and others; desecrated more than 150 Christian churches and monasteries and killed thousands in cold blood.

Why don't you post a link to the source of this article? I want to see the date when this was written. Thanks.

There you go: http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics...3&nav_id=49055

__________________
Albanians are Islamo-fascists supported by Bin Laden and trained in Al-Qaeda terrorist camps.
Albanians were (chronologically): Turkish horse breeders, Hitler's little pawns, Stalin's servants and today they are Uncle Sam's "allies".
Albanians from Kosovo ethnically cleansed more than 250,000 non-Albanians: Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and others; desecrated more than 150 Christian churches and monasteries and killed thousands in cold blood.

Is the deal actually a good one for the Serbs?

As I understand it you're selling your natural resource rights to the Russians. Since they already are an exporter of oil/gas it means they intend to sell what they get from Serbia at a profit. Implying that if you guys could sell the resources on your own you would make more than the Russians are giving you.

Is it just that this way you get cash up front instead of having to pay for infrastructure up front?

I don't know whether it's good or not.

__________________
Albanians are Islamo-fascists supported by Bin Laden and trained in Al-Qaeda terrorist camps.
Albanians were (chronologically): Turkish horse breeders, Hitler's little pawns, Stalin's servants and today they are Uncle Sam's "allies".
Albanians from Kosovo ethnically cleansed more than 250,000 non-Albanians: Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and others; desecrated more than 150 Christian churches and monasteries and killed thousands in cold blood.

Personally, I think that this kind of deal with Russia is disastrous for Serbian economic interests.
NIS (Oil Industry of Serbia) was sold for a price that can be payed of by oil exploitation from province of Vojvodina during SINGLE year (400-500 mil USD)

That makes NIS practically a present for Russians... and I don't support that at all.

Well ,yes. If you look at it just that way, in terms of economy. But if selling NIS was the only way to gain strong Russian support for Kosovo (and a possible gas pipeline in the future), then you should look at it as a political deal (which it is).

I believe the good sides of the deal will show up in the future.

But then again, selling NIS at 5 times lower price than the market value is not good for the economy.

At least we've secured an ally. Without the deal, we wouldn't have a single ally in the world. And that can't be good.

Now you see what that sick arse Milosevic has done to us.

__________________
Albanians are Islamo-fascists supported by Bin Laden and trained in Al-Qaeda terrorist camps.
Albanians were (chronologically): Turkish horse breeders, Hitler's little pawns, Stalin's servants and today they are Uncle Sam's "allies".
Albanians from Kosovo ethnically cleansed more than 250,000 non-Albanians: Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and others; desecrated more than 150 Christian churches and monasteries and killed thousands in cold blood.

But you still talk about exterminating Albanians. You're behavior is a typical Miosevic resemblance. It's funny, you quickly attempt to throw the blame on some others.

Remember, serbia's opposition parties are full of Nazi socialists who still want war and killing....

the last time i checked 44% of serbia's voters chose this NAzi party.

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Jesus beat the devil with two sticks. Colossian 2:13,15

Proud American!