Vucic: We will talk to Russians about NIS, there is nothing to be discussed with US anymore

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that, due to looming US sanctions on Serbia's Russian-majority owned oil company NIS, many problems, and probably difficult decisions as well, were ahead but that efforts would be made to protect the country, and noted that the issue would be discussed with the Russian side, while there was nothing to be discussed with the US anymore.

"On the other hand, I hope the company will not be laying off a large number of employees. In any case, we will discuss everything with the Russians, but now there is nothing to be discussed with the Americans anymore. They have got what they wanted. The Europeans will back the US sanctions. I am quite certain JANAF will stop supplying oil after a short period of time. Therefore, we have that physical problem," Vucic said in response to questions from reporters.

He said there was another, perhaps bigger problem - a financial and banking one, because "no bank in the world will want to bypass US sanctions."

"Great - we have one state-owned and one privately-owned Serbian bank, which can keep going for a day or two, three or five days longer, but they, too, will be unwilling to collapse or disappear as a result of the sanctions, so we will have countless problems," Vucic said.