Lavrov: Oil Company NIS Can’t Be Nationalized, Russia Demands Urgent Consultations with Serbia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/EV)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Moscow on Jan. 14 that oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) could under no circumstance be the subject of nationalization, adding that in cooperation with the Serbian authorities, potential solutions had been examined to the situation caused by the sanctions imposed on the company by the US Department of Treasury.

“The founding act of the company states that nationalization of NIS is not possible under any circumstances,” Lavrov told reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Russia’s capital.

Lavrov, according to Russian media, have said that Moscow has been in constant contact with Serbia and has requested urgent consultations regarding the sanctions against NIS. He said that “the situation, in legal terms, requires courageous decisions” to be made.

Commenting on the US’ demand for full withdrawal of Russian ownership in NIS, Lavrov described it as “a rather impudent act,” noting that with the sanctions imposed in the energy sector, the outgoing administration of US President Joseph Biden wanted to do harm to Serbia and the administration of President-elect Donald Trump,

Lavrov stressed that Moscow was interested in relations with Serbia which “are based exclusively on the interests of the two peoples and the two states.”