Strengthening trade and economic ties between the two countries will be high on the agenda when Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, pays a one-day visit to Belgrade on Wednesday to meet President Boris Tadic, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and other top Serbian officials.

Dragan Djuricin, president of the Association of Economists of Serbia, SES, sees the Putin visit as an extraordinary opportunity to promote Russian investment in Serbia.

Serbia needed to remain firmly on its EU integration course while at the same time encouraging "a greater inflow of Russian capital", Djuricin told Balkan Insight.

Reaching these goals would require great negotiating skill, "as Serbia needs to be more European-oriented but this should not be an anti-Russian orientation", he added.

The Russian ambassador to Serbia, Alexandr Konuzin, said energy would be an important topic during the visit.

Before heading to Belgrade, Putin is expected to visit Slovenia to assure officials there that Russia remains committed to the South Stream natural gas pipeline project in which Serbia and Slovenia are set to participate.

Previous high-level Russian visits to Serbia have not generated as much investment as was once expected.

Some 18 months ago, Serbian officials hailed the announcement of billion-dollar credit from the Russian Federation, agreed during the visit of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in October 2009.

But only a fifth of the credit has been drawn. The remaining 800 million dollars are still stuck in negotiations, Serbia's Finance Ministry recently said.

BalkanInsight