Putin ignites again: "powder keg" country is very concerned - Bundeswehr sends soldiers

Created: 07/27/2022, 10:12 am

By: Patrick Mayer

Meeting in St. Petersburg: Milorad Dodik (left), member of the three-member State Presidium of Bosnia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June 2022. © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS

Vladimir Putin is courting the Bosnian Republic of Srpska.

The situation is tricky - and a German diplomat is being criticized.

Munich/Banja Luka - It almost went under.

Just one day after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine (February 24), Washington and the transatlantic defense alliance NATO sent an unmistakable message to the Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin.

Namely, that they do not want to leave fragile Bosnia and Herzegovina to the President of Russia and his circle in Moscow.

Western Balkans: Bosnia-Herzegovina comes into focus because of the Ukraine war

Both NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US President Joe Biden emphasized that they want to send soldiers to the crisis region.

Long after the Bosnian War (April 1992 to December 1995), deep-rooted tensions between Bosnian Croats, Bosniaks and Bosnian Serbs persist in the country of around 3.28 million people.

In the video: Compact - The most important news about the Russia-Ukraine war

And the situation has been escalating for months: Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the state presidium, makes no secret of the Srpska Republic's thoughts of secession - including its own army.

Putin supports him in this.

Said Republika Srpska (RS) is one of two entities alongside the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is made up of Bosniaks and Croats.

While the proportion of Serbs in the Federation is negligible (less than three percent), it is over 80 percent in the RS.

Vladimir Putin courts Republica Srpska: Bosnia is considered a political "powder keg" in the Balkans

This is exactly where the Russian President is trying to exert his influence.

Most recently, he did so on June 17 at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, when he met with Dodik.

Not for the first time in recent years.

The RS is a small republic with around 1.16 million inhabitants.

But: Bosnia is still classified as a political "powder keg".

The trenches are deep, for example because of the Srebrenica massacre.

The alleged perpetrators from back then: soldiers of the Republic of Srpska under the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic.

also read

"You are his cannon fodder": Now Russian minorities are rebelling against Putin's war

Russia's soldiers are looting Ukrainian citizens - because Putin's military apparatus is failing

Thousands of names: The plaque commemorating the Srebrenica massacre, where more than 8,000 Bosniaks were murdered in July 1995.

© IMAGO / EST&OST

Dodik had repeatedly denied the genocide.

Instead, according to

, his "goal for years has been to destroy the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina by wanting to secede from the RS."

As the Austrian daily newspaper goes on to write, he announced in mid-April in the Bosnian city of Bijeljina: "Long live Serbia, long live Russia, long live the Republika Srpska!"

Russia has an important role insofar as Moscow can prevent an extension of the Eufor mission (Operation Althea) in the UN Security Council in November.

Then the temporary peacekeeping mission of the European Union (EU) expires.

Up to 600 Austrian Eufor soldiers are currently stationed in Brčko.

The population here is about half Bosniak and half Serb.

Tensions in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Bundeswehr strengthens the Eufor contingent

Instead of the Eufor, NATO troops could soon be stationed there.

There is a corresponding mandate.

At the beginning of July, the German Bundestag decided that the Bundeswehr should return to Bosnia-Herzegovina after around ten years.

Specifically: The mandate provides for up to 50 soldiers for Eufor.

The traffic light federal government justified the foreign assignment with the current political tensions.

The peace must be secured militarily by NATO (...) if we want to effectively prevent the next war in Europe.

 CDU politician Michael Brand

The country that is surrounded by two NATO states, Croatia and Montenegro, on the one hand, and Serbia, on the other, by a friend of Russia, is too important.

German CDU politician Michael Brand recently warned in the daily

that the Republika Srpska-Serbia-Russia axis is "a war-capable axis".

He demanded: "The peace must be secured militarily by NATO (...) if we want to effectively prevent the next war in Europe." Two other Germans have an important role to play.

Sources: Federal Statistical Office, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, UNHCR, Münchner Merkur (as of July 25, 2022)

Bosnia-Herzegovina: CSU politicians monitor compliance with the peace agreement

The so-called High Representative of the international community, Christian Schmidt (CSU), recently used the “Bonn powers” ​​to repeal an unconstitutional law of the Republic of Srpska.

Since 1995, the High Representative has overseen compliance with the Dayton Accords, which ended the Bosnian war after three and a half years of bloodshed.

The experienced foreign politician Schmidt recommended EU sanctions against Dodik in January after his party SNSD had taken concrete steps to eliminate state structures with the federation.

Souvenir stand in the old town of Belgrade: T-shirts show the faces of the Russian President Vladimir Putin (left), the former Yugoslav dictator Tito (centre) and the Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic (bottom right).

© IMAGO / Winfried Rothermel

Schmidt himself sparked angry protests between Sarajevo and Banja Luka for interfering with the constitution.

The law would have provided for state ownership to pass to the RS.

A maneuver by Putin's friend Dodik?

The other German protagonist is Olaf Scholz (SPD).

Representatives of the traffic light government have been meeting with politicians from the Western Balkans for weeks.

The goal: According to Chancellor Scholz, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo should be admitted to the EU in order to remove them from Putin's influence.

Focus on the Western Balkans: Chancellor Olaf Scholz is campaigning for Serbia's President to join the EU

In addition to accession talks, Scholz has the role of placating the nationalist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

How difficult that is was shown by the Chancellor's campaign for an end to the Serbia-Kosovo conflict.

Vucic snapped at Scholz at a joint press conference in Belgrade in June: "We don't react to pressure in this way, where someone threatens us and then you have to do something." Elections are now on October 2 in Sarajevo.

From Moscow to Belgrade and Berlin to Washington, all political decision-makers are looking very closely.

To the "powder keg" of the Western Balkans.