The scandal over Yugorosgaz, which resells Russian gas to Serbia, is not onlt an economic matter but a political one too, states Russian newspaper Kommersant
Kommersant investigated the details of resellers problem in Serbia. The resume made is that the Russia-Serbian energy cooperation via Yugorosgaz is nothing else than using doubtful schemes which existed in Slobodan Milosevic’s era. A reseller, founded with the help of Milosevic’s close friend Mirko Marjanović, is an example of doing business at the time of non-transparent schemes and the practice of high-ranking officials’ abusing power. In Serbia everyone knows that Prime Minister Marjanović received high revenues from Russian gas supplies – when in office he headed the Progress company, which dealt with Russian gas supplies.
All this may cause a blow against Russia’s image, which has been quite high in Serbia.
The current gas scheme, where a Russian company is a reseller, makes Serbia a subordinate, which is unlikely to benefit Moscow and Belgrade’s energy cooperation. The people of Serbia may think that they had to pay Yugorosgaz because Moscow insisted on it.
The conclusion is that the energy relations between Russia and Serbia should be transparent, basing on economic prognoses, and without resellers. Otherwise, the price of a reseller’s services will be too high: both in economic and political terms.
Author:
Ksenia Kochneva
