site.btaSerbian President Vucic Rejects Link between Foiled Sabotage of Balkan Stream and Elections in Hungary

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed claims that reports of a thwarted sabotage attempt on a Russian gas pipeline in Serbia are connected to the elections in Hungary, Serbian media reported.

He said that Serbian authorities have certain evidence but will not draw conclusions until they are completely certain who is behind the incident and until the elections in Hungary, scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 12, are over.

On April 5, Serbian authorities announced that an attempt to sabotage the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, which supplies Russian gas to Hungary, had been prevented.

The Balkan Stream gas pipeline is an extension of the TurkStream pipeline, which runs under the Black Sea and aims to transport Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary, Agence France-Presse notes.

On April 5, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Budapest views the incident in the municipality of Kanjiza (Northern Serbia) as "an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty", since the main volume of Russian gas is delivered through this pipeline.

He added that the foiled sabotage "fits into a series of cases in which Ukraine is constantly trying to hinder the transportation of Russian gas and oil to Europe".

The spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Heorhii Tykhyi, said that official Kyiv categorically rejects attempts to link Ukraine to the alleged explosive device discovered near the gas pipeline in Serbia.

Vucic told a press conference on Tuesday that the investigation has established that during the preparation of the sabotage, "calls were made from certain regional phone numbers to some embassies in Serbia".