Vucic: We will do our best to maintain oil prices, we will preserve peace at almost any cost

Printscreen: RTS

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic appeared on RTS last night and he addressed some of the most important topics in Serbia and the world.

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"Delaying is never a solution to a problem, and we have had sanctions (against NIS) for more than a year. The good news is that the refinery is working, that the Croats did not get the opportunity to stop the supply of oil to us like last time. I believe that MOL and Gazprom will finish the work by May 22. What concerns us the most is whether there will be enough oil".

"The refinery processed 10,000 tons last month, we expect 11-12,000 tons of oil next month".

"We will have big losses, but luckily we have orderly public finances".

"I will do my best for the state to do everything it can regarding the price (of oil). I spoke with Minister Mali. I believe that we will maintain the prices".

"Only Hungary has a lower price of gas in all of Europe. Only two countries have a lower price of electricity in Europe. If we manage not to increase the price of oil on Friday, from Monday we will be among the countries with the lowest price (of oil) in Europe."

Pensions

"Regarding poverty, we have five solutions we are considering to help the poorest pensioners. You can always do something with one-time payments, but we want to protect the poorest. To increase (minimum) pensions from 31,000 to 35, 36 or 37,000. But then what should we do with people who now receive 36,000. We are thinking what to do".

Printscreen: RTS

Gas arrangement with Russia

"We agreed with Azerbaijan to increase (gas suplies) from 1.3 to 2 million cubic meters, and I don't think there will be any problems with the Russians. I hope that I will be able to talk about it by phone with President Putin in the coming days."

"Things are going to get more complicated in the world. Such are the decisions, they are cutting each other's gas, oil access..."

"I hope that many people in Belgrade will accept to use the metro. This is becoming unbearable, because we have twice as many cars as there were a few years ago".

"We have more (gas) reserves than 75 percent of the countries of the European Union".

Deutsche Welle

"Deutsche Welle is a German service and they are not known for being unbiased. Now they are defending the Croats. Germany is surpassing the US for sure, and is on par with China, in terms of investing in weapons. I admire them, it's their money, they can do what they want. Soon they will be number four, and then third power in the world, and I am not sure that they will stop there".

"As for Croats, Serbia did not create a (military) alliance, they did. They say that the alliance is not aimed against Serbia, but the question is, who is it against? It's clear to everyone that the alliance is aimed against Serbia. Croatia is extremely well armed. The Albanians in Tirana are increasingly arming themselves. Pristina is getting armed by the West and Turkey. Our doctrine is to be strong enough to deter them from attacking us. I promised citizens of Serbia, all mothers and all citizens, we will preserve peace at almost any cost".

Local elections

"I hope that elections (on Sunday) will take place in a democratic atmosphere. I am only afraid that certain media tycoons have interests that that could cause unrest".

"People (running in elections) could have had programs and plans, but some have none".

(Telegraf.rs)