U.S. Sanctions on Serbia’s Russian-Backed Oil Supplier Expose Vulnerabilities in National Security

In a decisive move underscoring the intersection of energy dependence and geopolitical risk, the United States has imposed sanctions on Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), Serbia’s chief oil supplier, majority-owned by Russian state enterprise Gazprom Neft. This action not only strikes at Moscow’s economic foothold in the Balkans but also exposes critical vulnerabilities in American national security interests abroad. Serbia’s near-total reliance on Russian gas and oil, funneled through pipelines crossing Croatia and neighboring states, places it squarely within Russia’s energy sphere of influence. For America, this is more than a distant matter — allowing Kremlin-controlled entities to dominate Serbian...