NEW AGREEMENT WITH GAZPROM ON NATURAL GAS SUPPLIES BEING PREPARED

BANJA LUKA, JULY 8 /SRNA/ - The leadership of Republika Srpska is preparing a new agreement with Russia's Gazprom on the supply of natural gas, President Milorad Dodik told RIA Novosti.

Dodik said that legal documents covering the upcoming period are currently being drafted, stressing that previous plans for cooperation with Gazprom remain in place. "We consider this to be the only realistic and most beneficial option for us, and that is what we are doing. We are grateful to the Russian side, which has been very attentive and accommodating towards us in the past period," Dodik said. In June, Gazprom announced that the company's CEO Alexey Miller and Dodik had agreed at a meeting during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to extend the contract on the supply of Russian gas.