Serbia ignores EU sanctions, secures gas deal with Putin

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The Serbian populist president has announced that he has secured an “extremely favorable” gas deal with Russia. The deal came during his telephone conversation Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, a former pro-Russian ultranationalist who claims he wants to take Serbia into the European Union,  has refused to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite pressure from the EU, Serbia has not joined Western sanctions against Moscow. Vucic has spent recent years working on closer ties with Moscow. Serbia is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas and its main energy companies are under Russian majority ownership.