RS leader: Russia's role "useful and impartial"

RS leader: Russia's role "useful and impartial"

He told the entity's public broadcaster RTRS that "because of a series of well-known and objective reasons, starting with Ukraine all the way to the deadlock in Bosnia-Herzegovina" it was very important to continue discussions about "important political issues" with President Vladimir Putin.

According to Dodik, he and other RS officials will discuss with Putin "both the development of the situation in Ukraine, and the manner in which the processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been unfolding."

"We are very interested in that, because it obviously reflects on our position," Dodik stressed, and added that he was proud that the entity had "partnership relations" with Russia.

RTRS reported that Russia's Vnesh Ekonom bank planned to donate half a million euros in order to renovate and equip a hospital in the town of Šamac, and that this will be "only a part of the projects that will be finalized during the visit."

Dodik is accompanied on his trip by RS Prime Minister Željka Cvijanović, and is slated to hold meetings with Zarubezhneft and Gazprom officials in order to encourage Russia to continue with investments, "despite the obstructions coming from the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (entity)."

"Very complex"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Saturday against attempts to revise the Dayton Agreement which ensure the integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“It would be very dangerous to revise the Dayton Agreement as Bosnia-Herzegovina exists as a single state largely owing to this document,” Lavrov said.

“There is a very complicated formula: three state-forming peoples and two entities, as they are referred to in the agreement - the Republika Srpska (RS) and the Muslim-Croat Federation. Neither Croats nor Bosniaks (Muslims) have their own entity for they share it while being two state-forming peoples along with a third one, the Serbs. This formula largely reflected history, but also the Europeans’ desire not to leave the Muslims - Bosniaks - alone as this is a very narrow strip of land,” he said.

The Dayton Agreement gives each of the three ethnic groups the right of veto within Bosnia-Herzegovina’s political system, Itar-Tass said in its report.

“If it is broken now, this will create a temptation to turn Bosnia-Herzegovina into a unitary state. These tendencies can be seen now, including in the European Union’s position. They are displeased by the fact that the Serbs have a voice, which must be heeded when crucial decisions are made, including those concerning accession to international organisations such as NATO, and they do not want to infringe upon the rights of the Muslims who they think must be the main ethnic group embodying the Bosnian state. This won’t work,” Lavrov said.

He admitted that the system of government in Bosnia-Herzegovina is “very complex”. “The presidium is made up for three persons: a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb. They communicate with each other but run into lots of political problems. The EU supreme representative plays a harmful role as he possesses dictatorial powers, which should have been abolished a long time ago. If the EU supported Bosnia-Herzegovina’s election as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, it would be absurd to leave it under protectorate,” the minister said.

“We think these powers must be removed so that the Bosnians could work out agreements themselves, primarily where it concerns common interests to avoid situations, where they would be pushed into structures or partnerships that are unacceptable for one of the tree state-forming ethnic groups,” Lavrov said.