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ZAGREB : Russian President Vladimir Putin flies to Croatia on Sunday to launch a new energy strategy for the Balkan countries of southeast Europe.
At a meeting in Zagreb, Putin will address Croatian host President Stipe Mesic and the presidents of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.
"This is the start of an energy dialogue by Russia with the whole of the region," Kremlin press officer Oleg Tsatsurin told journalists. "That's the task of the summit, to establish general principles of cooperation."
Mesic meanwhile described the event as a chance for leaders "to express their views on current problems of energy and the supply of energy."
Among projects that the Kremlin hopes to promote are the planned Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline from Bulgaria's Black Sea coast to the Mediterranean and a plan to extend the Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia so that it reaches Croatia's coast, Tsatsurin said.
Moscow also wants to advance its plans to build the Belene atomic power station in Bulgaria, the Kremlin said.
Political concerns are unlikely to be far away.
Putin will be keen to assert wider Russian policy during a series of two-way meetings with the other leaders in Zagreb, as well as on a visit to Istanbul on Monday for a meeting of heads of state from the Black Sea region.
The energy theme is itself fraught, with the European Union keen to reduce its dependence on Moscow and newer members such as Poland worried that they could be cut out of the supply chain.
A Croatian-Hungarian plan to build a terminal on the Adriatic coast for delivering liquid natural gas to Europe is aimed at loosening Russia's grip on supply.
Meanwhile the plan to extend the Druzhba pipeline by integrating it with another pipeline to Croatia's coast, the Adria pipeline, has met some resistance due to possible environmental risks from increased tanker traffic.
In addition Russia is at odds with the West over the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo, arguing that it should only be allowed to cede from Serbia with Belgrade's assent.
Moscow also wants to limit future expansion of the NATO military alliance, which several countries present on Sunday are either members of or hope to join.
- AFP/yy
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