In January 2017 Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Russian Federation should sign a contract on repayment of the debt from the time of the SSSR and the former Yugoslavia, a part of which in the amount of 120 million EUR belongs to Sarajevo.
Announcement of the final resolution of the debt issue came after Dmitri Medvedev accepted the proposal presented by BiH authorities in October this year.
“Talks on the date of the signing of the contract are in progress and we expect this to happen in January. We will be the only former republic to whom the debt will be repaid in money,” said the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH Vjekoslav Bevanda.
Other countries of the former Yugoslavia charged the debt through goods and services.
Russia and the former Yugoslav republics signed a memorandum on indebtedness back in 2003. Total Russian debt towards Yugoslavia was 1.3 billion BAM, and it will be distributed among all former republics.
Russia, who took over all debts of the former Soviet Union, solved the debt issues with the majority of former Yugoslav republic except with BiH, and last negotiations between these two countries were led in 2008.
As usual, the problem was in the agreement on distribution of funds between entities.
According to the final agreement, FBiH should get 58 percent, Republika Srpska 29 percent, national authorities ten percent, and District Brčko three percent.
Russian debts are mostly based on loans taken from Yugoslavia by the Soviet Union during the difficult economic situation prior to the end of the Cold War.
(Source: klix.ba)