Hill: I cannot confirm US will impose sanctions on NIS

BELGRADE - US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill said on Monday he was unable to confirm whether the US would impose sanctions on Serbia's majority-Russian owned oil company NIS, and noted that, if imposed, the sanctions should not harm the Serbian economy in any way.

"I cannot confirm that sanctions will be imposed, I really cannot talk about sanctions. What I will tell you, though, is that ever since Russia made this purchase of the NIS oil facility, there has been a great deal of concern that this has become an extremely profitable investment and that Russia has taken a lot of the funds from this investment that never gets reinvested in Serbia and goes to Russia, and the real concern has been ever since the war in Ukraine began some three years ago. We have been looking at this and seeing whether this is a situation where Russia is using funds from this in order to help prosecute the war," Hill said in response to questions from reporters.

"This is a matter of Russia, not a matter of Serbia. In no way will we do something that will in any way, shape or form harm the Serbian economy. Any issues we will discuss thoroughly with the Serbian government and make sure there is absolutely no harm done to Serbia. That is not the purpose of it, and that will certainly not be the result of it," he said.

Asked if the matter had already been discussed with Serbia after President Aleksandar Vucic announced he would address it with the US side, Hill responded:

"As for discussions, we have already had some discussions and we will have more as well. There is nothing here that is imminent - that is, we are not talking about something happening quickly, but we are in conversation about how to address this issue."