PM on Ukraine, meeting with Putin, OSCE apology

PM on Ukraine, meeting with Putin, OSCE apology

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Vučić has said that Belgrade supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, but will not impose sanctions on Russia.

He spoke for the German newspaper Handelsblatt, which published the interview on Monday.

"Serbia's political position is clear - we support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. There is only one difference between us and other European countries - we do not impose sanctions on Russia,'' said the president of the Serbian government, who last week visited Germany and met with Chancellor Angela Merkel and political and economic leaders of that country.

Elaborating on the decision not to join EU's sanctions against Russia, he said it was "in the political and economic interests of Serbia,"and added that the Russian energy giant Gazprom owns the NIS oil monopoly in Serbia. He explained that the price of EUR 400 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian natural gas is "not easy to pay."

"A higher price would kill our country,'' Vučić was quoted as saying by the German newsapaper.

He added that Serbia, despite the damage from the floods that reached "billions" does not want to deviate from its course of reforms, and noted that the country must reduce wages in the public sector.

''We now do not want to delay a single reform step. It is an existential issue for Serbia.There we must be very strict with ourselves.These reforms no one can take away from us," the Serbian prime minister was quoted as saying and adding that "the public sector wages must be lower and the number of civil servants clearly reduced."

''We are going have a new labor law in parliament in 20 days' time, within 30 days...