Vucic Fumes As Europe's Demands to Cut Russia Ties Leave Serbia Bleeding €35M in Desperate Bid?

Cut ties with Russia. Great. And what do we do then? What do we do about gas? I won't talk about other things because in relations between states, you have to think about tradition, friendship, and the future about everything else. For four and a half years, I have withstood all the pressures of this world from everyone on the outside and all the fools inside the country to destroy the policy of friendship. Why? Because they no longer know what to do with themselves. Heat.

The price of gas represents a major problem on the world market. $735 per 1,000 cubic meters. And that is the highest price of gas in the last 35 years before the previous energy crisis. The price of gas had never been this high. It means that bearing in mind the situation in the Middle East, bearing in mind the situation in Ukraine, bearing in mind all the tensions that exist around closure of oil pipelines, gas pipelines, and everything else, we will have to make very painful measures, not only in the short term, but we fear over a period of several months. Hey, oil has always been more expensive than in the region because electricity was cheaper, because gas is cheaper, because bread is the cheapest in the region and so on. We said this retail price of diesel. We said 20% that is 15 ISD less. It jumps. We deduct from the excise tax which is 7475 ISD. We deduct 15 ISD. 20% as much as we had by law. That comes to 242 dinars. Today at the pumps it is 28 ISD. The price difference between 28 and 242 is 34 RSD. Today we will go with a price increase of only 4 RSD to 212 ISD. Gasoline will increase by only two dinars resulting in a difference of 30 ISD. We have already spent a 20% reduced excise tax here. We have already lost €35 million on a monthly level. We will look for a solution. We are almost completely giving up our revenues, but that cannot be the only measure because we cannot sustain it solely through the Ministry of Finance. That is why we went with 40,000 tons in reserve. We still do not have the exact weight of how much it will affect things. But our intention is to reduce the impact on the state budget on state finances and for the excise tax reduction to be more gradual than this because this in the end nobody will pay anything only the state and that would lead us to bankruptcy. So since we have large reserves, we are ready in a way to take the hit. We are ready to act as brokers to take the risk upon ourselves and to give it to oil companies an incredible price at this moment for 180 RSD so they can make a profit and remain motivated to keep gas stations operating in the villages not just the big companies because we have enough diesel. We have enough gasoline. We have enough of everything. We are injecting these 40,000 tons from reserves with that lower price. We want to adjust and reduce a bit so that the excise tax reduction is not 61% but let's calculate it to be 52% so that at least some revenue comes in at this moment. Just calculate just calculate how much that is that is with VAT 146 that is exactly somewhere around 1.3 billion. If such a catastrophic situation in the world remained for us, this kind of price, what did you say? A whole lot of money if it stayed like this for us until December, we would have a minus of 1.3 billion. That is a disaster through no fault of our own. We have met every crisis better than others. And at this moment, we have the highest oil and gas reserves. I want to inform you that our total gas reserves at this moment are 587.5 million cubic meters. Of that 146.2 million is stored in Hungary. We pay for the storage and it has always worked well and will continue to do so. Few will be able to give up so much excise tax as well as soia very well prepared financially and to you I stand firmly regarding Croatia and their threats. I listen to coach Romanovich who already says how they will treat Belgrad with him and that is normal for them when they say they will target Belgrad and that they can target Belgrad. That is all usual habits from the past. You know from the first and second world wars onwards. Habits are strange but I have nothing against it. If you know some nations convince themselves when they were with the Americans, English and Germans defeating the Serbs and something. They convince themselves that they are much braver than the Serbs and so on. Okay, we are weak. You are strong. I have nothing against it. Just keep talking. Just keep talking. Our people didn't shoot at your people, but yours and ours under your propaganda and your instigation in everything you have been doing for a year. It's the same with this. Cut ties with Russia. Great. And what do we do then? What do we do about gas? I won't talk about other things because in relations between states, you have to think about tradition, friendship, and the future about everything else. For four and a half years, I have withstood all the pressures of this world from everyone on the outside and all the fools inside the country to destroy the policy of friendship. Why? Because they no longer know what to do with themselves. But only if you,