Analysis by Dániel Harangozó
The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022 has had a marked effect on the Western Balkan region. Among the countries of this region, Serbia is in a unique situation due to its military neutrality, and the fact that it follows a balancing foreign policy between the Western powers on the one hand, and Russia, Turkey, and China on the other hand, also maintaining close political, economic, and security ties with the latter two powers. The second part of the paper continues to review the consequences and challenges of the war on Serbia by examining the energy domain. Russian exposure in Serbia’s energy sector, apart from the near-total reliance on Moscow for gas imports, is compounded by the fact that the most important oil company of the country, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) is majority-owned by Gazprom Group. As with other countries in the Central and Eastern European region as well as wider Europe, the diversification of sources and decreasing the reliance on Russian energy will take considerable time for Serbia. Cooperation both with Serbia’s neighbours and the countries of the region (e.g. Bulgaria and Greece) will play a significant role in the diversification of both sources and supply routes.
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