Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. File photoBELGRADE, May 12 — RIA Novosti. New EU sanctions could stop oil and gas supplies from Russia to Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters in Brussels after an informal meeting of leaders Western Balkans with the leadership of the EU.
"The problem is that I don't know what sanctions will be introduced. What will they do in the sixth package, after the sixth there will be the seventh package, and after it, probably, the eighth. What else will be subject to sanctions? Like, for example, Dimitar Kovachevski, who previously ordered grain from Odessa and cannot receive it, and Serbia provided the grain, for which he thanked & # 34;, — said Vučić.
Without energy resources from Russia, his republic will face serious problems, the president is sure. «Where will we supply oil from? If by tankers, then who will pay for insurance? 20 percent of the excise, it was a loss of 36 million euros for the budget every month, now 27 million each. And what to do with gas, where we are 100 percent dependent on Russia? And this is not a question of households, but of industry,» the Serbian leader said. Expert: Refusal to pay for gas in rubles will lead to a surge in prices in Europe 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, then we are immediately ready to order 300 million cubic meters, especially for flexibility in the winter months,” Vučić said. in the port of Alexandroupolis in northern Greece, a floating storage and regasification station for liquefied natural gas (FSRU). It is seen as a project to reduce the EU's dependence on Russian gas. There, he stated that Serbia was ready to buy large volumes of liquefied natural gas from the terminal in Greece in the future. He specified on May 5 that diversification of blue fuel supplies to the country from Russia would not be possible in the near future, since the construction of the connecting gas pipeline Nish-Dimitrovgrad with Bulgaria , from where LNG can be supplied from Greece from the Bulgarian side, according to him, it will take at least 300 days. The current contract between Srbiyagaz and Gazprom for the supply of six million cubic meters of gas per day from Russia to Serbia at $270 per thousand cubic meters May 31. The Serbian authorities reported that they plan to sign the next contract with the Russian side for ten years.Gazprom Neft has reduced its stake in the Serbian NIS to 50 percent Belgrade has also previously expressed concern about oil supplies. Croatia's state-owned operator of the Adriatic Oil Pipeline (JANAF) said on April 22 that it would continue to supply raw materials to the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS, Gazprom Neft owns 65.15 percent) after being exempted from the EU sanctions package. In January, NIS signed a new one-year contract with JANAF for the supply of 3.2 million tons of crude oil. After the start of a special military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine, Western countries stepped up sanctions pressure on Moscow. Many countries have announced the freezing of Russian assets. Calls to reduce dependence on Russian energy resources have become louder in Europe. Now the European Commission is discussing the sixth package of restrictive measures, which involves a phase-out of Russian oil imports. However, some countries, including Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, require exceptions for themselves. It has not yet been possible to agree on a package — approval of sanctions requires a unanimous vote of all members of the union. The Kremlin called the sanctions an economic war, the like of which has not yet been. As President Vladimir Putin noted, all this dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy, and the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people. According to him, the current events draw a line under the global dominance of Western countries in both politics and economics.