"Serbs won't let Bosnia join sanctions against Russia"

"Serbs won't let Bosnia join sanctions against Russia"

"I am in favor of Bosnia having a position similar to that of Serbia, which is that we do not want to break relations with the Russians, and we want to strive toward the EU."

He believes that the EU "will not give up and will demand that subservience be demonstrated on the issue of Ukraine," which would then become "another split within Bosnia-Herzegovina."

Speaking about the country's "movement toward NATO membership," the RS leader said that the Serb entity would to go to a referendum on the issue.

"Bosnia-Herzegovina has a choice to rally around the idea of deciding for itself, or go separate ways - as frustrating as that may be for some Bosniak who says he won't give Bosnia up. Well, we (Serbs) weren't giving Yugoslavia up, and then we lost it," Dodik said in an interview for Turkey's Anatolia news agency, carried by Banja Luka's Nezavisne Novine newspaper.

He expressed satisfaction with the announced policy of SNS leader Aleksandar Vučić, "which is to be based on cooperation with RS authorities and, of course, with Bosnia, but also other neighboring countries."

"His policy will be based precisely on that, on peace and stability in the region, cooperation, non-interference in internal problems," Dodik said, adding that Vučić intends to "continue to work in the best interests of Serbia and the RS, but not at the expense of Bosnia-Herzegovina."