Brnabic: Major pressure on Serbia continues

BELGRADE - Commenting on potential US sanctions against Serbia's Russian-majority owned oil firm NIS, Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Tuesday major pressure on Serbia continued from various sides and that the US was not happy with Russian ownership of the company, and that no one had forgotten that Serbia had not imposed sanctions on Russia.

"We have had a fair relationship with the current US administration, but there are not many countries in the world and definitely not many world powers that like countries that are small in numbers, such as Serbia, with a population of about just under seven million, that pursue independent foreign policies," Brnabic said on K1 TV.

In a time when the world and Europe are in flames, there is a country like Serbia that thinks independently and listens to neither the East nor the West, but to its own people, its own citizens, and works in its best interest and to preserve its stability and economic growth, she said.

"I do not believe America has too much of a desire to harass us. But is this a part of the pressure? Yes. Are they happy NIS is Russian-owned? They are not. Would I have done things differently had we been in power since 2008? Definitely," Brnabic said, noting that NIS had been sold to Russia's Gazprom for 400 mln dollars.

"When Aleksandar Vucic was still PM of Serbia, we launched the process of granting a practical concession for the Nikola Tesla Airport. That is not a sale of the airport, but a concession. So, you turn over the operation of the airport to someone for 25 years but, at any time, it is your property, property of the Republic of Serbia and the citizens of the Republic of Serbia," Brnabic explained.