President of Serbia Aleksandar VucicBELGRADE, Apr 8Serbia voted to suspend Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council due to the threat of sanctions against itself, said President Aleksandar Vucic. Earlier, the UN General Assembly voted to suspend Russia's participation in the UNHRC due to events in Ukraine. Serbia, among others, supported the resolution. The decision deprived Russia of the right to vote and the right to speak in the Council. In response, Moscow announced its withdrawal from the HRC. «There are questions not only because of this vote. People ask why we did not vote against or why we would not abstain. But if we abstain, one and the other will be against us, the pressure will become even greater At the same time, today a decision is being made about the fate of Serbia — whether we will be an exception from the package of sanctions on oil, right today,» Vučić said on Radio and Television of Serbia. He recalled that the sanctions adopted earlier by the European Union allow Serbia to import oil until May 15, and «then — neither from the Russian Federation, nor from anywhere else, because Gazprom Neft is the main owner of the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS).» We are threatened at every moment by what the Croatian press calls a «nuclear strike» against Serbia. They are not talking about real nuclear missiles, but about sanctions against Serbia and the suspension of its European path,» the president said.The UN Human Rights Council is monopolized by a group of countries, Russian Deputy Representative Vučić said, and again reminded that Serbia is the only country in Europe that has not imposed sanctions against Russia. At the same time, he repeated several times that Belgrade itself should not be hit in order to withstand foreign policy pressure and maintain economic growth. Vučić said in March that the new measures of the EU Council regarding the energy sector of Russia do not hit the interests of Moscow or Brussels, but Serbia. According to the Serbian leader, the Europeans left themselves the opportunity to work with Gazprom Neft on their territory, import from Russia, but third countries where oil refineries or companies are owned by Russians will not be able to export and import oil. The state-owned company is the operator of the JANAF oil pipeline, which delivers through Croatia raw materials for the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS, Gazprom Neft owns 65.15%) announced the suspension of oil pumping from May 15 for an indefinite period until sanctions are lifted due to events in Ukraine. In January, NIS signed a new annual agreement with JANAF, which delivers Russian raw materials from the port of Omišalj in Croatia, for 3.2 million tons. In an address to citizens on March 2, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the Serbian authorities supported 4 of the 13 points of the UN resolution, condemning the actions of Russia in Ukraine — those that do not involve sanctions and the alienation of the property of Russian companies in the country. According to him, the crisis due to hostilities in Ukraine is having a dramatic impact on Serbia, which has come under enormous foreign policy pressure. insults against Putin in the West
