The pressure of the Biden administration on Serbia to sanction Russia

According to Isna, Serbian President Aleksandar Vujic said on December 24 that he had discussed with Russian Ambassador Alexander Butsan-Kharchenko about the expected sanctions against the Russian-Serbian company NIS. In a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov the day before, he discussed the expected US sanctions against the NIS, regional issues, global politics and bilateral cooperation.

Volin, Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia said in this connection: Now, almost three years after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, they have decided to impose sanctions against NIS. Is this not coincidentally related to the fact that one administration in the United States is going and another is coming? Is this not related to the fact that the Serbian leadership must be broken before the US administration changes? Is it not because, as some say, the main owner is a Russian company, and this affects the conflict in Ukraine?

According to Novosti, according to this Serbian politician, the Americans should have known long ago who the owner of the oil company is.

He said: “This is done because now is the time to break the leadership of Serbia and put maximum pressure on President Vujic to force him to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation, or at least take action against the NIS company, which is looking at Russian partners.”

Volin clarified: the words of US Ambassador Christopher Hill that such restrictive measures will not be taken against Serbia are “hypocritical”.

On the night of December 23, Vucic announced the imminent start of talks with the United States and Russia on expected sanctions against the NIS.

In mid-December, the Serbian president announced that Belgrade would not impose sanctions on Russia due to expected US restrictive measures against the NIS. At the same time, Vujic did not consider the possibility of negotiations to reduce the share of Gazprom and Gazprom Neft in NIS due to the expected US sanctions unlikely. According to him, restrictive measures can be applied from January 1, 2025.

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