Key actors — tap for context
Aleksandar Vučić
outgoing Serbian president, seeking the post of prime minister after his promised resignation
Why here: called Putin about extending the gas deal shortly before his own departure from office
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Vladimir Putin
Russian president
Why here: his phone call with Vučić was meant to decide the fate of Serbian gas supplies for the near future
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European Union
political-economic bloc that Serbia is seeking to join
Why here: its gradual ban on Russian gas imports stands in direct conflict with Serbia's effort to extend its agreement with Russia
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Gazprom Neft
Russian oil and gas company
Why here: owns 56% of Serbian NIS and is negotiating the sale of its stake to Hungary's MOL
More info →MOL
Hungarian energy group
Why here: negotiating the purchase of the Russian stake in NIS, a condition for lifting US sanctions against the company
More info →NIS
Serbia's largest oil company, majority-owned by Russia
Why here: faces US sanctions because of its Russian owner, whose exemption expires on the same day as the gas deal
An eleventh-hour deal
"The gas deal expires on September 30. I believe that after today's conversation it will be extended and that we will secure stable gas supplies," Vučić wrote on social media after the call with Putin. TASR ↗ The previous three-year contract expired in the summer of 2025, and Belgrade has since failed to negotiate a long-term deal — supplies have been secured through a series of short-term extensions. Part of consumption is covered by imports from Azerbaijan and domestic production, but this is not enough to replace Russian gas.The phone call was among Vučić's last diplomatic moves in office — on Sunday evening, according to his own announcement from mid-September, he is set to resign as president and run for the post of prime minister in early elections. TASR ↗
Why Serbia is so dependent on Russian gas
Most of the consumption is covered by the Balkan Stream pipeline — the Serbian continuation of TurkStream, which runs through Bulgaria. Balkan Green Energy News ↗ Alongside gas, Belgrade is also dealing with the fate of the oil company NIS, 56 percent of which is owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft. US sanctions apply to it precisely because of its Russian owner, and lifting them requires its complete exit. Negotiations on selling the stake to the Hungarian company MOL have been ongoing for months; according to a January report, Gazprom Neft and MOL agreed on the basic terms of a future contract, but the final sale has not yet taken place. The Moscow Times ↗ Washington has set the same deadline for completing the sale as for the gas deal — September 30.Conflict with the EU membership bid
Since January 1, 2026, the Council of the EU has been gradually introducing a ban on imports of Russian gas into member states, with an exception for existing contracts until 2028. OSW Centre for Eastern Studies ↗ However, European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen clarified in late October last year that the ban does not apply to the transit of Russian gas through EU territory to third countries, including Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina — the regulation merely requires greater transparency about the volumes being transported. She added that candidate countries are expected to gradually align with EU rules as part of the accession process. Balkan Green Energy News ↗Nevertheless, Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović publicly warned at the time that the situation was "almost hopeless" and that Bulgaria would not allow the flow of gas through Balkan Stream. Balkan Green Energy News ↗ The discrepancy between Brussels' reassuring stance and Belgrade's alarming tone shows how sensitively Serbia frames its energy dependence on Russia politically — precisely at a time when, as a candidate country, it is supposed to be gradually moving in exactly the opposite direction.
*Illustrative photo: Vladimir Putin and Aleksandar Vučić at a meeting in September 2025. Source: Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0.*
What hotinfo is watching
- Dohoda o predĺžení dodávok ruského plynu bola do začiatku októbra podpísaná.
- Predaj 56-percentného ruského podielu v NIS spoločnosti MOL bol dokončený a americké sankcie voči NIS padli.
- Objavila sa konkrétna informácia o obmedzení (alebo potvrdení voľného) tranzitu ruského plynu cez Balkan Stream po sprísnení kontrol EÚ.
