Along with Croatia, Poland and Latvia Also Stop Import of Russian Oil to Serbia

The news that Croatia had stopped the import of Russian oil through JANAF for Serbia at an EU meeting, caused public commotion last week.

Another two countries have now stopped the import of Russian oil for Serbia, namely, Latvia and Poland. Their heads of state also asked for Serbia not to be exempt from the sanctions, Blic writes.

At the Prague Castle in Czechia, representatives of 27 EU states decided on the eighth package of sanctions against Russia on October 6, this time directed at limiting the price of oil that Russia exports to third countries outside the EU.

It wasn’t a surprise either, as it had been long known that those measures would follow, but it had been previously agreed for the Western Balkans to be exempt from the package around JANAF. However, there was a twist and, out of nowhere, Belgrade remained within the sanctions package. The initiative had been filed by Croatia, led by the country’s prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic.

The president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, also said so and reveled that Zagreb had made the move with the support of “a Baltic country and a country not far away from it”, with the argument that “it’s not fair for Serbia to have a lower oil price”.

– Does the ban punish Russia or Serbia? – Vucic asked at the time.

A diplomatic source now reveals which two countries “helped” this scenario come along.

– It’s Latvia and Poland – our interviewee says.

It is not difficult to draw the conclusion that this move is one of the ways by which the EU is trying to pressure and convince Belgrade to harmonize with the external policy of the EU and implement sanctions against Moscow, Blic writes.

The question is what’s in it for Poland and Latvia in this case, and Suzana Grubjesic says that their proximity to Ukraine certainly has an influence.

However, there’s another element – the historically bad experience with Moscow.

– The Baltic states and Poland had been warning of the possibility of Russian aggression for a long time, but not everybody believed them. They have been right, it has turned out. These are countries which, due to their proximity and closeness with Ukraine and their historically bad experience with Russian domination, find it difficult to understand the position of Serbia and not implementing sanctions against Russia – Grubjesic points out.

Croatia’s position, she adds, has a different background.

– For that reason, they believed that Serbia should not be exempt from the embargo on Russian oil and Croatia took the same position for its own reasons, which have nothing to do with the experiences of Poland and Latvia, but exclusively with its personal and, occasionally, not well thought out position regarding the European integration of Serbia, having attempted several times now to block and stop it – Grubjesic assessed.

Suzana Grubješić

Russian oil

blocking of import of Russian oil

Latvia

Poland

Croatia

embargo on Russian oil

sanctions against Russia

JANAF

JANAF oil pipeline