DODIK'S WALK ON THE GOLDEN ROAD: Is 60 million KM for Serdar's ticket to Putin's cabinet?

While the first-instance convicted President of the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik was wandering around Moscow looking for a way to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin, the RS Government paid for the entrance ticket to the cabinet on Tuesday. It was decided that the oligarch Rashid Serdarov, for the takeover of the company "Comsar Energy RS", would be paid the first tranche - 58,674,900 KM.

Dodik met with Putin, returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina with new tasks, and new tranches, given that Serdarov is seeking 300 million KM, will be a matter of agreement.

At a special session held on Tuesday, the Government was briefed on the "Information on granting consent to the transfer of funds based on the Preliminary Agreement on the transfer of shares in the concession company 'Comsar Energy RS' between 'Comsar Energy Group Limited' Cyprus and the gas project company 'GAS-RES' d.o.o. Banja Luka".

"The Government agrees to provide 58,674,900 KM for the payment of the first tranche under the Draft Preliminary Agreement from the Budget of the Republic of Srpska," it was announced, noting that the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Srpska is being charged with providing the money to be paid to the Cypriot "Comsar".

The announcement also states that the Ministry of Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska and "GAS-RES" are being charged with "undertaking the necessary activities to increase the share capital of the company 'GAS-RES' by 58,674,900 KM", and that in this regard the Government has decided to approve a payment for the increase in the share capital of "GAS-RES" in the amount of 58,674,900 KM.

Thus, Serdarov already received in the first tranche what "Comsar Energy RS" gave:

- in November 2013, he paid 52.93 million KM to the CERS account;

- from December 2014 to November 2015, the parent company "Comsar Energy Group Limited" from Nicosia lent the local "Comsar" about eight million KM.

But the deal was never completed.

Just a day after the government's decision, the portal "Capital" announced that all 16 accounts of the Mine and the thermal power plant "Ugljevik" were blocked again. Almost the entire power system in the RS was broken the moment when, due to harmful contracts, the backbone of "Ugljevik", as the largest electricity producer with a total share of 30 percent, broke.

 

RiTE "Ugljevik" must pay a total of 372 million KM to the Slovenian "Elektrogospodarstvo razvoj in inzenering" plus - to deliver a third of the electricity until the end of its exploitation life. Serdarov, in order to return the concession granted to "Comsar" for the coal deposit "Ugljevik - istok 2", intended for the operation of the thermal power plant that he never built, is asking for about 300 million KM.

 

HOW THE GOVERNMENT PLAYED FOR THE RUSSIANS

 

The harmful contract will fill the pockets of Serdarov and the Russian team, and "Ugljevik" is about to be shut down.

"Around 50 million tons of coal, which is enough for 25 years of operation of the TPP, lies unusable in the 'Ugljevik – East 2' deposit, which was given to the company 'Comsar energy Republika Srpska' (CERS) through a concession in 2013, majority owned by Russian oligarch Rashid Serdarov. This coal was intended for the operation of a thermal power plant, which the businessman from Makhachkala in Dagestan never built. The RS government has now decided to purchase 'Comsar', and therefore the coal exploitation concession, through its company 'Gas – Res'. According to unofficial information and expert assessments commissioned by 'Comsar' in order to have a better negotiating position, the sum is around 300 million marks," Capital recently reported.

Serdar’s letter of intent from 2011, when he was introduced to the President of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, by Duško Perović, the head of the RS Representative Office in Russia and a person on the US “blacklist”, stated that he had provided 400 million euros for the construction of a thermal power plant and the opening of a mine. He promised that everything would be completed in record time, with the involvement of domestic labor and companies.

Two years later, a call for the award of a concession was published, signed by the then Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska, the recently arrested and released Željko Kovačević. The ore would be used to operate the new “Ugljevik 3” power plant, and the value of the deposit was estimated at 443.6 million KM. Serdarov was given everything for a one-time fee of 2.59 million KM, with the obligation to pay a fee of no less than 3.2 percent of the income annually.

Subsequently, Comsar was granted a permit to use coal for commercial purposes, in addition to electricity generation. When Serdarov threatened to abandon the investment in 2018, his concession was extended from 30 to 44 years. In 2019, the RS government approved an increase in the power of the Ugljevik 3 power plant, although this, Capital emphasized, is contrary to the RS Energy Development Strategy and the policies of the South-Eastern European Energy Community.

The project never came to fruition, but in the meantime, an armored Mercedes S600 L Guard worth more than a million marks has appeared in Milorad Dodik's fleet.

The Director of the RS Electric Power Company, Luka Petrović, recently spoke to Žurnal about “Ugljevik”:

“Our goal is to ensure that the two basic electricity producers, ‘Ugljevik’ and ‘Gacko’, are on sound feet. It is not easy. Of course, in the 1980s, the best coal was mined. That is why the RS Government made a smart decision to negotiate the purchase of the concession that ‘Comsar’ was granted. This will give us a secure 25 years of coal exploitation in the part called ‘Istok 2’.”

“What is the price of that?” asked Žurnal, and Petrović took it literally:

“The price is worth it no matter what. Some prices of over 100 million euros are being discussed. However, when you divide that into 50 million cubic meters of coal, it means that there is almost two euros per ton of coal in additional compensation.”

“Only ‘Comsar’ profited enormously,” concluded Žurnal.

"Whether he will profit or not and what his obligations under the contract are will be reviewed by the competent ministry, as well as the fines and penalties, and potentially any agreement is better for us than an arbitration dispute. No one has succeeded in arbitration disputes in BiH," Petrović concluded.

A few days later, confirmation arrived that the Russian oligarch was profiting.

 

"UGLJEVIK" WILL ALSO PUT PRESSURE ON SLOVENIANS

 

According to several years of writing by Capital, in addition to the 245 million KM that it was obliged to pay to the Slovenian "Elektrogospodarstvo" by the arbitration decision, RiTE "Ugljevik" will pay the Slovenians another 127 million KM for undelivered electricity from 2022 to 2024.

"In mid-2023, the Arbitration Council in Belgrade issued a final ruling on a lawsuit filed by Slovenians for undelivered electricity, ordering RiTE 'Ugljevik' to pay 67 million euros and default interest to 'Elektrogospodarstvo Slovenije – razvoj in inženiring' as compensation for damages, and to deliver a third of the electricity it produces to them as long as it is operating. A few months later, the Arbitration Council issued a new decision obliging RiTE 'Ugljevik' to pay the Slovenians interest of 58.2 million euros. At the beginning of last year, an agreement was signed between the two parties, which formalized the start of electricity deliveries, but also agreed on a repayment model for the 67 million euros of principal based on compensation. However, at that time, the issues of undelivered electricity from January 1, 2022 to January 31, 2024 were not regulated, as were the issues related to the payment of accrued interest under the arbitration award and the claims from the lawsuits that EGS initiated in the arbitration proceedings against BiH. in Washington, which is why they sat down at the table again at the end of 2024," this portal writes.

And that's not all. Acting Director of RiTE "Ugljevik" Diko Cvijetinović says that the damage is much greater, but that the Slovenians have forgiven part of the interest, so the debt has been agreed at 65 million euros...