South Stream to reach Macedonia

Over the past ten years, Russian companies have invested about a billion dollars in mining and energy industries in the new Balkan nation of Macedonia. On a visit to Skopje Wednesday, Foreign Minister Lavrov also indicated Russian readiness to grant a Macedonian request for a spur from the planned South Stream gas pipeline to Southeastern, Southern and Central Europe. Macedonia will get Russian gas, while Albania and Kosovo won’t. Kosovo must come to terms with Serbia first, which continues to see the self-proclaimed state as a renegade Serbian province.

The Russian minister was speaking about this in Skopje Wednesday after emerging from talks with his hosting counterpart Antonio Milososki.

He had flown to Macedonia from Montenegro, where he, too, was pushing a mostly economic agenda:

"Bilateral trade is quite modest, while Russian investment in Montenegro -- mostly in the holiday industry -- is already quite impressive. Russia is determined to keep its position as the number one foreign investor in Montenegro. The figure last year alone amounted to 120 million dollars."

The visit produced cooperation agreements between the national archives and between Podgorica and St Petersburg Universities. Ahead of the 300th anniversary of diplomatic relations later this year, Mr Lavrov delivered a Russian present to Montenegro, a package of historical documents. He also thanked Montenegro for help in dealing with Russia’s wildfires last summer.