The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has agreed to begin negotiations on building a gas pipeline to ship gas from Russia, the head of Republika Srpska’s representative office in Russia told state news agency RIA in an interview published on Monday.

RIA cited Dusko Perovic as saying: “The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina gave the green light to start the negotiation process”, and that region’s government would seek to have gas shipped via neighboring Serbia.

Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has taken a strongly pro-Moscow line under its nationalist leader, Milorad Dodik.