EU paying extra to hide purchases of Russian oil – Republika Srpska PM

Oil from Russia is still entering the EU market despite Western sanctions, but it now flows through intermediaries at a much higher price, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic stated on Friday.   

“The same energy resources are coming but with the help of different intermediaries,” Viskovic told RT on the sidelines of the Russian Energy Week forum. He added that this is “the price that must be paid” for the international restrictions that banned Russian oil from the EU market.   

“When big players globally shuffle the cards, sides that are not direct participants of these processes have to take certain losses,” he said, referring to surging energy prices across the bloc.  

According to Viskovic, Republika Srpska, Serbia, and the Western Balkans nations that have not joined the EU and G7 restrictions on Russia are suffering smaller losses compared to other European countries that were previously heavily dependent on energy supplies from Russia.   

“People in Europe pay a much higher price than we do. Currently they have prices twice as high and the lack of energy resources. They were lucky that last winter was mild. Now the weather is also in their favor but that is a matter of time,” the politician warned.  

He also cited the example of Hungary, which did not abide by the EU’s demands to impose sanctions on Russia, noting that now Budapest “receives Russian gas and oil which are then transported to Serbia and also to Republika Srpska and to Bosnia and Herzegovina.”  

The leader of Republika Srpska, one of the two political entities making up Bosnia and Herzegovina, revealed that the republic is poised for large-scale gasification and is due to strike a deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom on the construction of two 30-megawatt power plants in the republic.

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