Unusual Phenomena in Serbian Transport Market
In domestic business circles, unusual phenomena are noticeable these days on the market of transport and logistics services. The explanation is that two powerful people, close to the regime, quickly register with the competent regulator a large fleet of river tankers for transporting oil. A well-informed insider claims that it is supposed to transport crude oil on the Danube from the warehouse of the MOL company in Hungary to the refinery of the Oil Industry of Serbia in Pancevo.
The Serbian fleet of tankers is being prepared as the only remaining solution – since all other options have failed – to supply the Serbian market with oil derivatives after the US sanctions imposed on Russia’s Gazprom, which also hit NIS, in which the Russian company has a majority stake. This development raises questions about the intentions behind this move and its potential impact on the region.
Putin’s Reaction and the Fate of NIS
An interesting coincidence is that the same powerful tandem close to the government was secretly preparing a plan to buy the Russian share in the Serbian Oil Industry from Gazprom/Gazpromneft this spring, in April. This ambitious business trick was discovered by the Russian intelligence services, so President Putin reacted strongly and reminded the President of Serbia (May, visit to Moscow) that the Russian part of NIS is not for sale. Not at any cost. Estimates are, by the way, that the Russian part in the current circumstances (impossibility of doing business) is worth no less, but no more, from 1,2 to 1,5 billion dollars.
After Putin’s “net”, there was no more speculation in Belgrade about the option of the Serbian purchase of the Russian share in NIS. But until recently, when the American sanctions finally came into force in September, the search was for a solution of the type “pull the bulls and the sheep in numbers”, which turned out to be an impossible mission.
The Search for Alternative Solutions
Belgrade often threatened to nationalize the NIS, but it was an “empty gun” because the political elite of Serbia did not dare to allow this kind of tightening of relations with the Kremlin rulers. This was also acknowledged by the President of Serbia in the “never more emotional” brainwashing of Pink television viewers, mentioning nationalization as the only possibility for delaying sanctions: “That’s the last thing I would do if I had to.”
Original Article: Shadow fleet against US sanctions — Vreme