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The sanctions, announced on January 10, essentially freeze NIS’s operational model and require Gazprom Neft to divest its 50% stake within 45 days (by February 28). Serbia has requested a 90-day extension, but is still awaiting a response from Washington.
The Serbian government is under increasing pressure to secure NIS’s future. Among the options being considered are the repurchase of Gazprom's shares by the Serbian state or the sale of the company to a third party. While nationalisation has also been discussed, the government has ruled it
out, fearing it could strain relations with Russia, particularly as the two countries prepare for negotiations over gas supply contracts set to expire in March 2025.
Speculation is growing that third parties such as Shell, MOL or Azerbaijan's SOCAR may step in to acquire Russia's shares in NIS. Some local experts, including Goran Radosavljevic, a professor at the FEFA faculty, believe it is more likely that investors from the Middle East could become involved.
"It seems more realistic to me that some players from the Middle East will appear. It wouldn't surprise me if the
Russians don’t want to sell their stake," Radosavljevic said in an interview with Nova Ekonomija.
The ongoing uncertainty comes at a time of heightened social unrest in Serbia, following a deadly infrastructure collapse at Novi Sad train station in November 2024. The tragedy sparked months of protests that have mobilised mass crowds in towns and cities across Serbia. Fuel price hikes and potential fuel shortages could exacerbate these tensions, especially for farmers who are already on the streets and find that their fuel subsidies that are now at risk.
US administration 'misinformed about Romanian elections', says presidential candidate Nicusor Dan
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest
Bucharest mayor and presidential candidate Nicusor Dan has argued that the US administration’s bias towards Calin Georgescu, the far-right candidate who won the first round of the cancelled 2024 presidential election, is a result of insufficient explanations provided by the Romanian authorities.
US Vice President JD Vance has repeatedly criticised the cancellation of the elections in Romania, and American billionaire Elon Musk frequently posts on X, the social network he owns, about the cancellation of the election and the judges involved in the process, and reposts messages by Georgescu.
While Georgescu has repeatedly expressed his point of view in the United States, the Romanian state did not provide sufficient explanations for the decision to cancel the 2024 election, Dan argued.
“It is our [Romania’s] duty, and I hope
this will be done before the repeated elections, to clarify the annulment of the elections,” Dan said quoted by Digi24 TV station.
Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the presidential elections on December 6 and decided to repeat the process – which was received with relief by part of the electorate that feared a win by Georgescu over his second-round rival, reformist candidate Elena Lasconi. The annulment was received with irritation by Georgescu and Lasconi.
The annulment decision was officially based on classified reports from
the intelligence services about the interference of “statal and non-statal entities”. However, the reports were never aggregated into a concise public report by the Romanian authorities.
The Constitutional Court’s reaction was in broader terms prompted by Georgescui’s statistically improbable first round win.
The ruling coalition formed by Social Democratic Party (PSD) and National Liberal Party (PNL) was accused of having ordered the annulment because their candidates failed to make it to the second round. There is speculation that both the PSD and the PNL had hidden agendas involving support
for Georgescu and other far-right candidates. The involvement, or at least a deliberate lack of action, by the intelligence services was also suspected.
However, this does not mean that serious reasons did not exist for the annulment. Independent investigations and a report from the French government’s body dealing with digital disinformation revealed massive hybrid campaigns in favour of Georgescu.
French President Emmanuel Macron concluded, during a question and answer session with social media users on the situation in Ukraine, that Russia manipulated elections in Romania.
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