OREANDA-NEWS Statements by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic about his readiness to buy out a controlling stake in the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) from Russian holdings look strange. This was pointed out by Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund and an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, the Regnum news agency reports.

The analyst noted that possible sanctions are known only from the words of Vucic himself.

"One gets the feeling that the Serbian leadership is just trying to capitalize on this moment... and therefore gently hints to Russia that there are only two options: either Russian President Vladimir Putin should instruct Gazpromneft and Gazprom to sell their stake in Serbia itself, or the Vucic government will nationalize this company altogether and They won't pay any money," Yushkov said.

He also considers Vucic's statements suspicious that after the introduction of these sanctions, the entire Serbian economy will actually come to an end. The expert is confident that even if the data on this is correct, no catastrophe will happen in the Balkan country because Russia does not recognize the restrictions.

According to Yushkov, the cost of buying out the Russian stake offered by Vucic looks frankly underestimated. In addition, if Russian companies get rid of their shares, Serbia can resell some of them, thus making money on the deal.

Earlier, Alexander Vucic said that Serbia is ready to buy out Russia's stake in NIS if it falls under US sanctions. He clarified that Belgrade is ready to do this for 700 million euros. The Serbian leader added that he plans to discuss this issue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this month.