Lavrov supports Dodik and blames the West for the crisis in Bosnia

Lavrov supports Dodik and blames the West for the crisis in Bosnia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and former Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik reiterated previous positions that “complicated relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina are a consequence of the West’s heavy interference in its internal affairs.”

Lavrov welcomed Dodik to Moscow on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference, Lavrov repeated his criticism of the international community’s top representative in Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, saying he “has no mandate” from the United Nations Security Council and that he is “trying to impose decisions and laws at the behest of the West.”

“We strongly condemn attempts to remove from power Serbian leaders who are undesirable for the West, and especially our today’s interlocutor, our friend, the legitimate, legally elected president of Republika Srpska, through fabricated criminal cases,” Lavrov said.

Dodik was stripped of his mandate as president of the Bosnian Serb entity by the Bosnian Central Election Commission, after the Bosnian Court of Appeals upheld his February sentence of one year in prison and a six-year ban from holding office.

He was convicted of disrespecting the decisions of the high representative of the international community in Bosnia.

Lavrov announced that Russia will take over the presidency of the UN Security Council in October of this year and that a session on the situation in Bosnia will be held on October 31, “when our colleagues in the Council will have to answer very unpleasant questions regarding Bosnia.”

Dodik said that “Bosnia has never made a decision to impose sanctions on the Russian Federation, because Republika Srpska prevented this through its representatives.”

Dodik dedicated most of his media speech to Schmidt.

“The high representatives have dismissed over 900 elected representatives in Bosnia, two-thirds of whom are from Republika Srpska. Republika Srpska has remained committed to the ‘letter’ of the Dayton Agreement, while the West has used the so-called spirit of the agreement. For years we have had a nameless foreigner called Schmidt, through whom they impose decisions,” Dodik said.

Dodik, among other things, said that there is no negative Russian influence in Bosnia.

Dodik recently announced in an interview with the Russian newspaper “Sputnik” that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in October.

As Dodik said at the time, he would ask Russia to veto the extension of the European Union’s peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, EUFOR Althea, which is voted on every November by the United Nations Security Council.

Bosnia’s Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to Hungary on Friday after its Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, referred to Dodik as the president of Republika Srpska during a meeting in Budapest.