Analyst: Vucic Will Make Russians Sell NIS, Then Exploit That Extensively

Oil and gas company NIS (Photo: NIS)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has raised the alarm about the U.S. intending to impose sanctions on the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS), majority-owned by Russia, but analysts claim that his true goal was to take control of the company.

Vucic stated in mid-December that he had obtained information about the U.S. intending to impose “full sanctions” against the oil company and that this would take place around Jan. 15. The former Bulgarian ambassador in Moscow, Ilian Vasilev, assessed on Jan. 9 that, by making this announcement, Vucic signaled the Americans that he was ready to let an American investor enter NIS.

Vasilev, who is the publisher of the Alternativata media, specializing in energy and geopolitics, told the Brussels-based portal EurActiv that he had received this information from a source that had insight into Serbia’s side of the deal.

According to Vasilev, Vucic is aware that the Kremlin can no longer extract the same economic benefits from petroleum and is “switching sides.” “It is a fact that Vucic will make the Russians sell and he will exploit the deal to the maximum,” the former Bulgarian diplomat said to EurActiv.