According to a statement on the Russian ministry's website, during the January 22 meeting between Foreign Minister Lavrov and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), "topical issues in bilateral relations as well as prospects for the Bosnian peace process were discussed during the conversation".
"The mutual striving was emphasized to develop Russian-Bosnia-Herzegovian cooperation in a broad spectrum of fields. Lavrov reaffirmed Russia's invariable support to the process of comprehensive normalization in BiH, and noted the importance of the soonest handing over to local authorities of the full responsibility for the state of affairs in the country," the Russian ministry stated.
The Bosnian Serb press reported that after the meeting Lavrov said that friendly relations between Moscow and the Serb entity were an important continuation of dialogue with Bosnia-Herzegovina, and expressed hope that Dodik's visit would contribute to the advancement in the most important segments of cooperation, including economic cooperation.
Dodik said that he had notified Lavrov of his personal position that the Office of the international community's High Representative (OHR) should cease existing as scheduled and that it should be transformed into an office of the European Union.
The entity's delegation also met managers of Russia's Zarubezhneft joint stock company to discuss plans for the privatisation of the oil refinery in the northern town of Bosanski Brod, the petroleum product refinery in the nearby town of Modrica, and a chain of petrol stations.
In late December, the Serb entity's parliament greenlighted the sale of the Bosanski Brod oil refinery to Zarubezhneft.
On 16 August 2006, a special protocol on the matter was signed in Moscow regulating the Russian company's obligation to pay 42 million euros for the Bosanski Brod plant, 767 million euros for the Modrica plant and 10 million euros for the petrol stations. The Russian company is also expected to invest an additional 979 million euros into the development and modernisation of production in the next four years.
After the latest round of talks, Dodik and other officials from the delegation declined to comment on the contents of the negotiations until their conclusion.
It was stated earlier that a contract with the Russian partner could not be signed without the approval of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Council of Ministers, the country's government, about maintaining the current quality of petroleum produced in the above-mentioned plants. However, this means that those petroleum products will not meet European standards as the plant in Bosanski Brod is in a poor condition.