DODIK: I WILL REQUEST MOSCOW’S SUPPORT FOR SRPSKA INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 28 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik announced that he will visit Russia to secure Moscow’s support for Srpska’s efforts to hold a referendum towards independence.

Dodik said he will go to Moscow with the intention of engaging Russian allies in some preparatory discussions ahead of the UN General Assembly. “I will ask them to explain this situation and to support us in our efforts to proceed with a referendum to independence,” Dodik told Sputnik, following today’s CEC BiH decision that “early presidential elections in Srpska will be held on November 23.” When asked what he would convey to his contacts in Russia, Dodik said he would most likely request that the Russians at the Security Council withdraw consent and veto the extension of the EU mission Althea’s mandate in BiH. “They have often been used as a threat against us Serbs and as part of that occupying international authority. To free ourselves from all of that, we must demand that these occupying forces withdraw and that foreigners refrain from decision-making. This is not possible at the BiH level, and therefore Srpska must declare independence and have its own functioning system, separate from Sarajevo and from foreigners,” Dodik emphasized. He noted that the Russians have behaved very correctly throughout and have been highly engaged in upholding international law and at the Security Council when discussing the situation in BiH. “They have always been objective, but the Western side was illusory and fancied that it could impose its views on the Serb people,” Dodik says. He stressed that Srpska therefore has no reason to take into account the West, embodied by Germany and the United Kingdom, but has reason to consider the U.S. and former President Donald Trump, who indicated they will no longer focus on building other people’s impossible states. “We read that this applies to BiH as well. We do not want to live in that unfinished state. We will live in some other state, not in BiH. In any case, the Russian side has been very correct, not to mention Serbia and President Aleksandar Vučić, who has proven a consistent defender of international agreements.” Dodik noted that this was not enough, as the West has attempted to undermine the Dayton Agreement by focusing on the spirit rather than the letter of the accord.