BELGRADE — The United States slapped sanctions on Serbia’s largest oil and gas distributor Thursday over its ties to the Russian firm Gazprom Neft.
“This is bad news for our country,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said in an extraordinary address to the nation Thursday, citing “immense economic and political consequences.”
Vučić said he refused a U.S. request to nationalize the company, the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), which is majority owned by Gazprom Neft but in which the Serbian government remains a major shareholder.
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“The U.S. delayed the sanctions eight times, and they would extend the waiver further if I agreed to plundering, if we launched a nationalization procedure,” Vučić said. “I am not a thief.”
