BELGRADE (Reuters) – The Kremlin supports Serbia’s authorities as they face growing anti-government protests, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday following a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Student-led anti-corruption protests have spread across the Balkan country over the past four months since 15 people were killed when an awning collapsed at a newly renovated train station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city.
On his Instagram account, Vucic said he and Putin spoke about what he described as “a coloured revolution”, a reference to popular uprisings experienced by former Soviet states.
“I thanked him for the fact that Russian officials do not support the coloured revolution,” Vucic said.
“President Putin had a very clear, precise position about that, Russia understands well what’s going on and it will continue to support legitimate … authorities in Serbia.”
Students have called for a general strike and more protests later on Friday.
Serbia maintains a balancing act between its historical ties with Russia and the European Union, which it wants to join. Belgrade has repeatedly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but has so far refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow.
Without elaborating, Vucic also said he and Putin spoke about renewing a gas deal that expires on May 31 and U.S. Treasury sanctions against NIS, Serbia’s sole oil producer and retailer majority owned by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom.
Serbia still imports most of its gas from Russia through the TurkStream pipeline. In recent years, it made steps to diversify supplies by importing gas from Azerbaijan and elsewhere.
The U.S. placed sanctions on Russia’s oil sector on January 10, and gave Gazprom Neft 45 days to exit ownership of NIS, which operates Serbia’s sole oil refinery.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control extended the deadline on February 27 for a month.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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