DODIK WITH LAVROV: NOBODY CAN STOP COOPERATION BETWEEN SRPSKA AND RUSSIA

ST. PETERSBURG, JUNE 5 /SRNA/ - President of SNSD Milorad Dodik said today in St. Petersburg that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov confirmed his commitment to the Dayton Peace Agreement, and to territorial integrity and sovereignty of BiH.

Dodik clarified that this means the cessation of the work of the OHR, as well as the departure of foreign judges from the Constitutional Court, which is the known position of Russia, as well as the fact that it is necessary to sit down and find a solution for all the deviations that were made in violation of the Dayton Agreement. "That is more or less the politics we suggested. We remain committed to the Dayton Constitution, we always said that, and we think the only way is to sit down and see what we can do. But Bosniaks do not thing that they should talk," Dodik said after the meeting with Lavrov. Dodik noted that Republika Srpska sovereignly decides on its rights and will continue to do so. He pointed out that at the meeting, they also discussed the situation in Republika Srpska and BiH regarding the unsuccessful farce surrounding the Peace Implementation Council /PIC/. "PIC is not a Dayton category, nor is it in the scope of the legislation of BiH or Republika Srpska. I am glad that they experienced such a fiasco, and in this respect, we still remain committed to the position that OHR has to be closed. It is also the position of Russia, who has a significant role in decision-making of the UN Security Council," said Dodik. He stated that at the meeting, Lavrov also expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that Bosniaks and Croats are boycotting the work of the joint intergovernmental commission, and that they are sending a clear message to Russia in this regard. "In the end, we all know that the behavior of Bosniak politicians is extremely hostile towards the Russian Federation, and I think that it is maturing here as well. It is now clear to them that Bosniak and Muslim politicians have gone to far. They did not tell me that, but I can recognize that they increasingly consider themselves hostile to Russia in everything they do," said Dodik and emphasized that this is not an obstacle for the Republika Srpska to continue developing cooperation with Russia, and that no one can stop it. Dodik stated that he told Lavrov his opinion regarding the behavior of certain European countries, and that he was concerned about Germany's arming. "We are concerned about the additional militarization of the EU, which is becoming more and more a military alliance from a political alliance, and this is something that will put new decisions before us. That is why it was right that we said in the past that we do not want to join NATO, which bombed the Serbs on two occasions in Republika Srpska and Federation of BiH. We do not want our membership there to be visible, and in this regard we refused any integration processes with NATO," said Dodik. He assessed that it is obvious that there are problems with NATO itself, but also that it is possible for the Alliance to continue working in a changed form or for some European military forces to be formed. "Both variants of membership are unacceptable for us, because many countries, first of all Germany and others, participated in the bombing of Serbia and Republika Srpska, and we as a people must never forget that," said Dodik. Dodik also stated that Russia is exposed to certain problems with the Westerners, that is, fundamental problems related to the conflict in Ukraine. "In this regard, our position is that we do not want to support any sanctions measures against the Russian Federation itself, nor to support the West in an effort to expand that war. I received sincere assurances from Lavrov that they want to establish peace as soon as possible, but that simply peace does not depend on them, but on the West, primarily Europe," said Dodik. Dodik mentioned that the meeting also discussed the operationalization of the earlier meeting with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. "We had several topics for which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge, to implement those conclusions through the Government of the Russian Federation, which are related to certain projects that we agreed on and we will continue to talk about them in an operational sense," said Dodik.