As part of the program Regional Initiative for combating disinformation “Western Balkans Combatting disinformation Center: Exposing malicious influences through fact-checking and Analytical Journalism“, we present you a new analysis of fake news and disinformation narratives.
Vulin on NIS: They want to set Serbs against Russians forever – and what then when the Kosovo Resolution comes
Sanctions against the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) entered into force on 9 October. After being postponed eight times over the previous several months, sanctions imposed by the United States were introduced against NIS, a company majority-owned by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom and its subsidiaries.
The majority stake in NIS was sold to the Russian state-owned company in 2008, while the Republic of Serbia retained an ownership share. Since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2022, there has been ongoing speculation about the possible introduction of sanctions against all companies in the energy sector—both oil and gas—that are majority-owned by Russian entities and are headquartered in or operate within European countries.
The outgoing Biden administration announced the introduction of U.S. sanctions against the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) in January 2025, after which the U.S. Department of the Treasury, under the Trump administration, postponed their entry into force until the second week of October. During this period, despite negotiations, no adequate solution was found that would remove the grounds for sanctioning NIS, which would have entailed the termination of Russian ownership in the company.
Sanctions against NIS directly threaten Serbia’s energy security, as they call into question the supply of oil and petroleum products, while simultaneously having a negative impact on the country’s economy, in which NIS represents one of the central pillars. The Russian side’s continued intransigence—according to statements by certain officials and findings of investigative media, reflected in its unwillingness to compromise or sell its ownership stake at a time when Serbia faces a potentially severe energy crisis—has resulted in sharp criticism of Russia within segments of the Serbian public, including in some circles close to the authorities.
In contrast, reporting in domestic pro-Russian media over the past month has focused on justifying Russia’s position regarding NIS and promoting anti-Western narratives. Illustrative in this regard is an article published on the Serbian portal of the Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik under the headline “They want to set Serbs against Russians forever – and what then when the Kosovo Resolution comes.”
Sputnik Serbia relays a statement by one of the most prominent pro-Russian politicians in Serbia and former Minister of Defence, Minister of the Interior, and Director of the Security Information Agency (BIA), Aleksandar Vulin. Vulin, known for his controversial statements, emphasized that “sanctions against NIS are an attack on Serbia… Serbia is the target; we are not collateral damage, we are the target. This is an attack on us because we are supposed to seize Russian property; we Serbs are supposed to quarrel with the Russians forever.”
In the same vein, Vulin linked other key elements of long-standing anti-Western narratives in Serbia, claiming that “we are supposed to quarrel with the Russians, and then tomorrow, when the Kosovo resolution comes, when we look around there will be no one… tomorrow, when they move to abolish Republika Srpska or when the Srebrenica resolution returns demanding that it be recorded that the Serbs are a genocidal people, that we must pay war reparations to Croatia and Bosnia, there will be no one around us… that is the goal.”
It was concluded that “Russia will take care of both our interests and its own,” and Aleksandar Vulin also stressed that “the issue of NIS must be resolved jointly and in agreement with the Russian Federation, and in no other way.”
The text on the Sputnik Serbia portal relativizes the Russian side’s previously irreconcilable stance in negotiations over potential solutions for NIS, a position referenced by certain Serbian state officials, while it also completely ignores the use of the issue of a (new) gas arrangement as a direct lever of open Russian pressure on Serbia. Alternatively, it is even suggested—through the statement of one of the leading pro-Russian actors—that Serbia should refrain from taking measures to protect its energy security and economic stability if such measures would harm the interests of a Russian state-owned company.
Author: Igor Mirosavljević
