Serbian president talks about threat of sanctions for Serbian oil company where over 50% owned by Russia

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has stated that the United States and the United Kingdom will soon impose sanctions on the Serbian oil company NIS, in which Russia's Gazprom holds more than 50% of the shares.

Source: Radio Liberty with reference to Vučić’s interview with a Serbian TV channel, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Vučić said that the Serbian side had become aware of the US plans to announce sanctions against NIS in a few days. 

"The United Kingdom will also join the sanctions. But this means that everyone will join because when a company is under US sanctions, no one wants to work with it," he said. 

He called it "the worst news in many years". Neither Washington nor London confirmed plans for such sanctions.

Serbia's NIS has had Gazprom among its shareholders since 2008. At present, Gazprom and Gazpromneft together own 56.15% of the company's shares, with almost 30% in Serbian state ownership.

Vučić said that the US sanctions are due to take effect on 1 January 2025.

"We are in talks with Russia to possibly reduce the ownership to less than 50% so that we can buy the rest," Vučić said, adding that he also plans to hold talks with the US side to understand the room for compromise. 

Serbia remains dependent on Russian energy resources. Gazprom is the country's only gas supplier and the majority owner of both pipelines that transport gas from Russia.

Background:

• Protests continue in Serbia over the tragedy at the reconstructed railway station, where more than a dozen people died due to the collapse of the structure. Vučić’s government tried to mitigate people's discontent and published about 130 documents related to the reconstruction.
• Vučić accused foreign intelligence services of trying to overthrow him because of the protests and said he was not going to flee the country like ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

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