Moscow confirms talks on Gazprom exit from Serbian NIS asset

Talks were held between Moscow and Belgrade regarding the potential sale of Gazprom’s stake in Serbia’s national oil company NIS (Naftna Industrija Srbije), Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during a briefing.

According to Peskov, the contacts concerned commercial matters and therefore their content is not public.

“There were contacts, including with the Serbs, with Serbian counterparts,” he said when asked whether talks on the sale of the company had taken place or whether the process had stalled.

“But, of course, these are commercial contacts, the content of which should not be made public,” he added.

NIS shareholders have been forced to consider selling assets after coming under US sanctions. In January 2025, the US Treasury placed the Serbian company on its sanctions list along with its majority shareholder, Gazprom Neft.

After several delays, the restrictions came into force on October 9 of the same year. Serbia’s Energy Ministry said on November 11, 2025, that Russian owners of NIS had informed the United States of their readiness to transfer control of the company to a third party.

Gazprom and Hungary’s MOL group announced on January 19 that they had signed a memorandum of understanding on the sale of a stake in NIS. However, following parliamentary elections in Hungary in April, the country’s policy direction began to shift.

By Jeyhun Aghazada