EU: Serbia is obliged to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation

Serbia is obliged to impose sanctions against Russia if he wants to join the European Union. According to RIA Novosti, this was stated by the Commissioner for European Negroce Policy and negotiations on the expansion of Johannes Khan on the eve of the visit to Belgrade. "Serbia legally pledged, within the framework of negotiations on the introduction, gradually coordinating its position with the EU on difficult issues, such as sanctions against Russia. This is very important, and we expect from Belgrade to comply with this obligation," Khan said in an interview with the Belgrade newspaper "Evening News".

The European Commissioner noted that he understands the historical connections of Serbia and Russia. According to him, the EU "does not force Belgrade to make a simple choice," but Belgrade himself proclaimed his strategic goal to join the European Union.

"Your country designated the entry into the EU as its key strategic goal, which Prime Minister Vucich confirmed during the recent visit of President Putin to Serbia. We expect from representatives of your authorities to continue the demonstration of the key strategic goal of joining the EU," the European Commissioner said.

Economic sanctions against Russia will be applied "on the required scale and as long as it will be necessary," said the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, speaking after the end of the "large twenty" summit. However, according to her, it will take some time before the sanctions take the action.

On the part of the Western leaders at the summit , tough assessments of Russia's actions against Ukraine sounded . The European Union may impose new sanctions against Russia due to a crisis in Ukraine, Merkel said. “The current situation does not suit us. The list of new sanctions is on the agenda,” said the Chancellor, which had a meeting with Putin during the summit. A day earlier, the UK is ready to support the tightening of sanctions against Russia, said Prime Minister of this country David Cameron, who also met with Putin.

In early November, Russia reduced the supply of gas gas by 28 percent, as reported by the Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia, Alexander Antich, then reported. According to him, Moscow took such a step due to debts, which, according to October 30, amount to $ 224 million.

“Over the past week, we have a decrease in supply of 28 percent from Gazpromexport. But all these days, our gas supply system worked absolutely normal, because we had enough gas from Russian sources, local production, we also partially covered the missing amount from the Banatian Courtyard gas storage,” said the Antich.