“We have the money” to buy back the Russian stake in refiner Naftna Industrija Srbije, or NIS, President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters in Belgrade on Saturday. “It sounds unreal, but we do have the money, even without borrowing.” The Russians hold a 56.15 percent stake in the company, which is valued at just over $1 billion.
Vucic spoke a day after US Treasury announced the latest sanctions package aimed at choking off Moscow’s war machine. Two top State Department diplomats, Richard Verma and James C. O’Brien, were in Belgrade on Saturday to explain that the punitive measures aren’t meant to hurt Serbia.
“There will be no economic disruption if the Russian ownership is removed” from NIS, Verma said after meeting Vucic. The sanctions “target Russian aggression, they don’t target Serbia or the Serbian people.”
Gazprom and Gazprom Neft hold the majority stake in NIS, whose fuel output is vital for Serbia’s economy. Serbia sold a majority stake to the Russian investors in 2008, keeping just under 30% ownership in the top-traded company on the Belgrade Stock Exchange.
More talks with US officials are needed to determine if the Russian interest in NIS needs be just reduced or eliminated, Vucic said. For now, Serbia has 45 days to find a solution for NIS but the government will ask for additional time to negotiate an arrangement, he said.
NIS depends on crude imports that come through a pipeline in neighboring Croatia, a European Union member.
With UK and key EU states likely to join the US sanctions, NIS could hardly keep operating under the current ownership, Vucic told Bloomberg in an interview on Friday. Still, he added that he wants to avoid a hostile takeover or blatant nationalization of the Russian assets because “we are not communists.”
The latest US sanctions primarily target Russia’s seaborne exports, tankers and traders, whereas the assets in Serbia are far less significant, Vucic said. Discussions with top officials in Moscow are also necessary, he said, in line with his policy of geopolitical balancing. Serbia is a candidate for EU membership, while keeping close ties with China and trying to stay on good terms with the Kremlin.
