Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said today that he expects documents from the United States to impose sanctions on Serbia's oil company NIS (Naftna industrija Srbije - NIS), in which Russian companies hold a majority stake, on January 10 or 13, the Serbian edition of Radio Free Europe reported, quoted by BTA.
In a broadcast on Serbian national television RTS, Vucic pointed out that there are two unknowns, which relate to the deadlines and whether the problem is that Russia holds a majority stake or that it participates in the ownership of NIS at all.
Will the sanctions against NIS remain if the Russians remain with 40 percent ownership, is it enough that they do not have a majority or controlling stake, or are they insists that they completely exit the property, Vucic said.
Since 2008 Russian state-owned Gazprom Neft and its parent company Gazprom have a majority stake in NIS of 56.15 percent, while 29.87 percent is owned by Serbia.
Vucic said yesterday that US Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Jose Fernandez had confirmed to him that Washington would impose direct sanctions on NIS.
The Serbian president indicated during his visit to RTS that Serbia has the money to buy NIS, but added that the question for the US administration is what Russia will do with the money it will receive from the sale of NIS.
“If we go in this direction, we will try to avoid this, but if this happens, we will not sell to others, we will buy“, Vucic said.
Despite attempts to diversify supply sources since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbia is still almost entirely dependent on Russian energy sources, and this dependence is one of Belgrade's key arguments not to impose sanctions on Moscow.
Serbia, which is a candidate country for EU membership, has repeatedly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but despite calls from the West, it refuses to impose sanctions on Moscow.
The president of Serbia claims that even in the event of the introduction of US sanctions against NIS, there will be no shortage of oil in the country and that Serbia has sufficient reserves, Radio Free Europe notes.