''The visit of the Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Davor Ivo Stier to Moscow is very important for the Croatian business community in Russia and will improve the political and economic relations between the two countries'', commented the representative of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) in Russia Jakov Despot in Moscow a few days ago.

According to Despot, the crisis and problems in the political relations between Russia and Europe led to a significant exports decline of Croatian companies to the Russian market. However, things have improved to a certain extent lately.

On this occasion, the head of the Croatian diplomacy emphasized that a new phase in relations between Zagreb and Moscow began after eleven years of stagnation. ''It has been almost eleven years since the last visit of the Croatian Foreign Minister to Moscow. Therefore, what we are doing here today is the opening of a new phase in the dialogue between Croatia and the Russian Federation'', commented Stier at a press conference.

On the other hand, Stier's counterpart Sergey Lavrov commented that this visit took place two days before the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, and that ‘’the political dialogue is developing dynamically and there is an effort on strengthening the relations between Croatia and Russia’’.

Two countries also expressed their interest in the development of further cooperation especially in the field of economy, thus the two ministers agreed and announced the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for Cooperation in Moscow in early autumn.

It is interesting to note that there is some unofficial information about a possible meeting of the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic with Vladimir Putin ''as soon as conditions allow''.