President on NIS-Related Talks with Gazprom Neft

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/PREDSEDNISTVO SRBIJE/DIMITRIJE GOLL/MO)

Regarding his scheduled Oct. 13 talk with representatives of Russia’s Gazprom Neft on the topic of Serbian oil and gas multinational Naftna Industrija Srbija (NIS), President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic has announced that he will first hear what the Russians have to say before making any decisions. According to Vucic, however, the problems stemming from the U.S. sanctions NIS incurred for being majority-owned by said Russian oil giant will only be resolved once the Russians and Americans reach an agreement.

Vucic said he is mainly interested in learning the Russian side’s plan for the eventuality of the war in Ukraine – which caused sweeping Western sanctions against all Russian-owned businesses – not ending in the foreseeable future.

“I want them to tell me what happens if the war doesn’t end soon. And I’m not convinced it will. We’ll manage for three, even four months, and that will entail serious damages because we will be spending everything we earned. But, tell me, what do we do after that? Even if a truce is signed, things won’t change easily. However you approach the matter, there is no easy solution for us… We have to understand that all of Europe has been gripped by the psychosis of war… We cannot disregard that, because we are a part of the world,” the president concluded.

Vucic insisted that at no point did anyone ask for Serbia’s opinion on the matter of NIS and added that the country refuses to participate in the Russian-Ukrainian war yet is “already paying a high enough price [for the conflict], both economically and politically.”

The president told the public that the “buckets and canisters” scenario from the 1990s – when Western sanctions rendered fuel scarce and forced people to resort to any means possible to secure gas, diesel and other oil products – will not be repeated. The government will “fight for the jobs” of NIS employees, he said and reiterated his loathing for nationalization, thereby indirectly commenting on suggestions that the Serbian state resume full ownership over the oil and gas company.