Serbia is under unprecedented pressure

Serbia is currently under unprecedented pressure, not only political but economic as well.

Amidst of ongoing student unrest, politically supported by European states and the US, Serbia's vulnerable position to foreign political interference has been complicated by economic pressure either.

The United States slapped sanctions on Serbia's largest oil and gas distributor NIS. President Aleksandar Vui announced this in his public statement. The company operates around 400 stations in Serbia and in the region. Among other things US sanctions threaten the operation of the Pancevo refinery, which is vital to the economy of the country.

NIS said it had not been granted an extension of the special licence from the United States Department of the Treasury.

The US sanctioned NIS in January as part of its crackdown on the Russian energy sector. Currently Serbia's sole oil refiner is 44.85% owned by Gazprom's oil subsidiary Gazprom Neft, Serbia holds a stake of 29.87% and smaller shareholders own 13.98% among themselves. The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control initially placed sanctions on Russia's oil sector on January 10, and gave Gazprom Neft 45 days to exit ownership of NIS.

Since January the U.S. delayed the sanctions eight times systematically forcing Serbia to launch a nationalization procedure.

On October 5, Serbias president Vui said that they promised to extend the waiver further, if we launch a nationalization procedure, but we were unwilling to do so.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vui stated that there was no chance of another deferment.
He warned that the sanctions would have a serious impact and hit the banking sector first. Under the threat of sanctions, NIS has already showed weaker results in the first half of 2025 than in 2024. There are losses.

Thus, the move is expected to cause shortages, NIS warned its customers that purchases made at its gas stations using international banking services such as Mastercard, Visa and American Express could fail to go through.

The uncertainty could also urge citizens to stockpile gas or cause panic buy.

This situation is nothing more than interference by a foreign state in the internal affairs of a sovereign country, forcing Serbia to make an unprofitable-for-its-economy decision.