President receives Russian Railways chief

President receives Russian Railways chief

As the best example to support this statement, Nikolic listed the project of reconstruction of the Belgrade-Bar railway section.

Yakunin informed Nikolic that after slight delays due to May floods, the planned order of reconstruction, construction and modernization works on Serbian railroads has been finally resumed.

All the works planned for the year of 2014 will be completed within the envisaged deadlines and the share of works planned for 2015 will be carried out at an even faster pace than originally planned.

Yakunin said that the Russian Railways company signed two additional contracts with the Serbian Institute of Transportation CIP, adding that the Serbian institute and the Russian company would perform the works on the Belgrade-Novi Sad railway section together. The project should be completed within the planned deadlines, the president of Russian Railways said.

Yakunin informed the Serbian president that the funds of the Russian Railways have been used to reconstruct a primary school in Pancevo and added that the company is willing to provide assistance in the recovery of three to five more schools in Serbia.

He suggested that a program should be prepared for the recovery of several schools along the route of railroad reconstruction and construction works so that the facilities may be thoroughly revitalized through joint efforts.

On Monday, Yakunin attended the beginning of works in the construction of the second track on the Belgrade-Pancevo railway section to the total length of 15 kilometers.

After the event to start the railroad construction works, Yakunin and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic, Russian Ambassador Alexander Chepurin and Director of RZD International Sergei Pavlov visited the reconstructed school in Pancevo which was rebuilt in just a few of weeks with the help of the funds allocated by the Russian Railways company.

Yakunin said that the assistance was delivered to the school in Pancevo for a good reason, and explained that the Russian Railways system covers around 40 schools at remote spots in Russia where only railwaymen and their families live.

"We wanted our schools to set up friendships with schools in Serbia and for our children to be able to go and visit each other," Yakunin said.

"As long as necessary"

While in Belgrade on Monday, Vladimir Yakunin said that Western countries "declared an economic war on Russia," the Russian TASS agency reported

“I believe that the term ‘sanctions’ is being used to cover up for one simple circumstance that an economic war is being waged against Russia,” Yakunin told Serbian journalists when asked "how Russia was living in conditions of western sanctions and the weak ruble."

Asked for how long Russia can endure under the sanctions, Yakunin replied, “We are going to stand for as long as necessary. One cannot win love against someone’s will. We are going to make friends and cooperate with those who want a balanced, I emphasize, a balanced world."

The Russian Railways chief noted that the weak ruble had not yet produced any major impact on the company’s operations because Russian Railways earns its main profits in roubles. “We spend about 4 percent of the general budget on imports. We have drawn up our fiscal plan and adopted the budget according to which we are going to work,” Yakunin said.