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Focus on Bosnia: Serb politician awards Putin medals - and draws anger from the United States with a parade

2023-01-11T17:26:12.568Z


Focus on Bosnia: Serb politician awards Putin medals - and draws anger from the United States with a parade Created: 01/11/2023 18:13 By: Patrick Mayer On the outskirts of Sarajevo: Police officers of the Republic of Srpska march January 9 in a parade marking the republic's 31st anniversary. © ELVIS BARUKCIC / AFP Mirolad Dodik, President of the Bosnian region of Republika Srpska, bestows a me


Focus on Bosnia: Serb politician awards Putin medals - and draws anger from the United States with a parade

Created: 01/11/2023 18:13

By: Patrick Mayer

On the outskirts of Sarajevo: Police officers of the Republic of Srpska march January 9 in a parade marking the republic's 31st anniversary.

© ELVIS BARUKCIC / AFP

Mirolad Dodik, President of the Bosnian region of Republika Srpska, bestows a medal on Moscow ruler Vladimir Putin and antagonizes the United States with a march.

Munich/Banja Luka – How closely are Belgrade and Moscow connected?

How is Russia's ruler Vladimir Putin influencing the Western Balkans?

And what does that mean for the already fragile state stability in Bosnia-Herzegovina?

While far away in the Ukraine war the Russian army is apparently attacking near Soledar in the Donbass and there are reports from nearby Kosovo that Russian Wagner mercenaries are causing unrest, the focus is once again on the Republic of Srpska (RS).

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Paramilitary police officers from the Republic of Srpska march in Sarajevo

Because: The leadership of the Serbian part of Bosnia provoked the Bosnian-Croat Federation (FBiH), the transatlantic defense alliance NATO and the USA with a paramilitary parade on the outskirts of Sarajevo.

Specifically: 2,000 paramilitaries, police officers and civil servants marched in East Sarajevo on Monday (January 9) in front of RS President Milorad Dodik and his guests.

The parade was part of the celebrations of the so-called RS Day.

Several thousand Serbs were there and waved the Serbian flag.

They didn't do this in RS capital Banja Luka, but in Sarajevo, the capital of the entire country.

By the grace of Putin?

In the video: Bosnia - the seat of the Serbs in the state presidium remains occupied by nationalists

For classification: The Russian President openly supports secession ideas from the Republic of Srpska, which with an estimated 1.16 million inhabitants is the smaller of the two entities alongside the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has around 2.08 million people.

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

Even long after the Bosnian War (April 1992 to December 1995) there was considerable tension between Bosnian Croats, Bosnians and Bosnian Serbs in the country with around 3.28 million inhabitants.

Which Putin wants to take advantage of?

Aleksandar Vucic: President of Serbia sends son to Mirolad Dodik's Sarajevo parade

According to the German Press Agency (dpa), the most recent demonstration was a provocation, especially for the Bosniak majority population in Sarajevo. During the Bosnian war, the city (today almost 300,000 inhabitants) was finally occupied by Serbian troops from the surrounding mountains for more than three years been besieged.

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And today?

Ivica Dacic, Serbia's foreign minister, sat in the front row at Dodik's parade.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is at odds with NATO over the Kosovo conflict, had sent his son Danilo.

And: Local members of the Russian Night Wolves Motorcycle Club, which is close to Russia, marched on the streets of Istočno Sarajevo (see Twitter video), the only district that belongs to the Republic of Srpska.

But that's not all: As it became known later, Dodik had already awarded Putin the Order of the RS in absentia on Sunday (January 8).

He will hand it over personally later, Dodik explained, according to dpa.

Both are considered close allies, which has not changed with the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The US embassy in Sarajevo, meanwhile, condemned the parade and Dodik's secession policy in general.

"The Republic of Serbia will only destroy itself and those around it by chasing the will-o'-the-wisp of independence," the embassy said in a Twitter statement.

The relationship between Belgrade and Washington has long been considered tense.

Balkans: The relationship between Serbia and the USA is considered tense

A look back: In the Kosovo war, from March 24, 1999, under the leadership of the USA, NATO had military facilities in "Operation Allied Force" for weeks, the main building of Serbian radio, the Ministry of Defense in Belgrade and numerous bridges in what was then still known as "Yugoslavia". State of Serbia bombed.

Which is still not undisputed under international law.

Meanwhile, Putin is persistently courting one of his few remaining allies in Europe.

One of three presidents of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Mirolad Dodik (front) from the Republic of Srpska.

Here at the RS Prohibited Day parade.

© ELVIS BARUKCIC / AFP

In August, for example, representatives of the Republic of Srpska and the Russian government met to agree on a bilateral economic agreement.

As the director of the Investment and Development Bank (IRB) of the Republic of Srpska, Drazen Vrhovac, said according to  the

Srna

news agency  , Russia offered the Bosnian republic the prospect of investments of 200 million dollars at the time.

According to the Austrian daily Standard

, Dodik is said to have shouted

at a rally in the Bosnian city of Bijeljina in April: "Long live Serbia, long live Russia, long live the Republika Srpska!" Shortly afterwards, on June 17, Putin invited Dodik to the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

Western Balkans: Russia's ruler Vladimir Putin is expanding his influence in Serbia and Bosnia

The fact that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) declared at almost the same time that he wanted to bring six Balkan countries - including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo - into the European Union (EU) as quickly as possible was completely ignored in the Republic of Srpska.

Instead, Putin is apparently expanding his influence - in Serbia and Bosnia.

(pm)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-01-11

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