"We will have problems with the Russians", Vucic: the US will impose sanctions on the Serbian Oil Industry due to Russian ownership

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, announced late Friday that the United States of America will impose sanctions within a few days on the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS), because Russian companies enjoy the majority of its shares.

Vucic said that one of the most difficult news of recent years has been confirmed.

"We still haven't received the official letter, but the news has been confirmed to us and our service has confirmed it with the sisters' services. Therefore, the United States of America will impose within a few days full sanctions against the Serbian Oil Industry due to Russian ownership," Vučić told Serbian media.al jazzera".

Vucic has stated that the US decision to impose sanctions on NIS is geopolitical and directed against Russia, and that it is also calculated to "force us to impose sanctions on Russia", Telegrafi reports.

"This is a much bigger decision. This is a geopolitical decision. A much bigger decision than the day-to-day things here, which are resolved one way or another. We never heard that the Americans were preparing it. We knew that Europe was preparing for more than two years, but we never heard that the Americans were preparing," said Vucic.

He added that the Europeans started preparing this decision half a year after the start of the war in Ukraine.

As Vucic said, the British also join these sanctions of the American Treasury.

"But that means everyone, because when a company is under US sanctions, no one will work with it. You can see this in (BiH entity) Republika Srpska. Now, since we haven't received the papers, I don't know how much time they will give us".

"We expected it to come from the EU a year and a half ago, it didn't come from the EU, but it comes from America, which are probably the most severe sanctions. From that second, the Janaf gas pipeline in Croatia tells you - we do not let oil pass through the Adriatic pipeline. Of course, this opens us up to problems with our Russian friends about everything. From politics to everything else," said the president of Serbia.

The main owner of NIS is the Russian company Gazprom Neft which owns 50 percent of the shares, then the state of Serbia with 29.87 percent of the shares, while the Gazprom company has 6.15 percent of the shares.

Gazprom Neft is the third largest oil producer in Russia.

Serbia is largely dependent on Russia in the energy sector, and Gazprom is Serbia's sole gas supplier and the majority owner of both gas pipelines that deliver gas from Russia to households and industry in Serbia. /Telegraph/