Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov will be in Hungary next week and attend the signing of the founding document on a Hungarian-Russian joint venture for the South Stream gas pipeline, business daily Vilaggazdasag said on Thursday.
Zubkov will attend the signing ceremony of the Gazprom-MFB company to be set up for the operation of Russian-backed South Stream’s Hungarian section during his visit on January 28-29, the paper said.
The project company will be co-directed by a Hungarian and a Russian chief, the paper said, adding the Hungarian director will be current CEO of MFB Invest, Csaba Bato.
The company will have to make preparations, enabling investors by late 2010 to make a final decision on launching the project. Construction was originally scheduled to start in May or June this year. The delay was not due to Hungary but other countries involved in the project, the paper says.
Zubkov’s agenda includes talks on Russian ownership in Hungarian oil and gas company Mol and Hungarian airline Malev.