Milorad Dodik, the president of the Republika Srpska entity and a key pillar of the government at the state level of Bosnia-Herzegovina, is on an official visit to Russia for the sixth time in the last two years, once in Moscow and once in St. Petersburg.
Dodik, an outspoken advocate of BiH’s European path, has stepped up visits to Russia since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, from time to time he harshly criticizes the European Union and accuses the USA of hindering any progress of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which for him is “an ordinary farce”.
Although the war is still raging and it is not known in which direction it will go, Dodik, who allegedly maintains a neutral line of the RS entity regarding the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, is absolutely on the side of the Russian Federation, and this is evidenced by his visits, meetings with Putin and other high officials of Russia and Russian state companies, klix.ba reports.
Despite all this, Dodik still enjoys a rather comfortable status in a number of European countries that opposed the imposition of sanctions due to his secessionist, anti-Dayton and anti-state policies. To all this, we must add the pro-Russian policies and sympathies he cultivates through personal and business relationships.
That Dodik’s alliance with Putin is not isolated in this part of Europe, even in a part of the European Union, is shown by the fact that the head of Hungarian diplomacy, Peter Szijjarto, is also present in St. Petersburg today, who clearly sent a Russian message to Western countries.
“The West cannot stop me from participating in the St. Petersburg Forum,” he said.
Today, the Russian president can absolutely count on the support and help of friends west of Russia’s eastern border, namely the satellites – Serbia, Republika Srpska and Hungary.
Recently, the American administration has sent precise and concrete messages to Dodik not to “play with fire”, but the question is how much will, strength and desire the European Union, which is not behaving sober, will have to deal with them which can create a big problem in just one moment.
Europe is facing key elections and the strengthening of right-wing groups and political options such as those that see Russian aggression against Ukraine as a “special operation” and the United States of America in a negative light, could put the Old Continent in real danger.
And Dodik in BiH? He continues to threaten the “secession” and ultimate destruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina as long as Brussels and other European power centers only look at him naively.
