Putin awaits BiH’s answer to gas letter

Russia expects an explanation from Bosnia and Herzegovina with regard to the letter from Vladimir Putin in which he warns that the gas supply would be halted because of Ukraine’s debt, explained Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, Patria reports.

Peskov said that Moscow received a letter from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso saying the EU is prepared for a dialogue on the gas supply, but that it wasn’t clear to them whether Barroso also represents BiH and other countries that are not EU member states.

“This is a welcome letter. But it isn’t clear to us whether Barroso represents also those countries that are not member states of the EU who receive Russian gas: BiH, Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey. That needs to be explained,” said Peskov, NAP reports.

Several days ago, Putin said that he will wait another month before taking these steps. The BiH Presidency earlier confirmed that Putin’s letter had arrived.

We are trying to ascertain whether BiH will respond to Putin, but sources in the Presidency told us that the letter was forwarded to entity governments who have energy in their portfolios and for now no explanation is planned, say NAP.