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In a wide-ranging interview with the publication Kosovo Online, published on his official website, the President of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, spoke out about the West’s attitude toward the problems in the Balkans. “The international community should not be trusted,” the Bosnian Serb leader declared, “but should be discussed, and any proposal that does not respect the Serbian national and state position should be rejected.”
Dodik emphasized the changing geopolitical situation, “The world is no longer unipolar, although America is still a powerful country. As for the EU, no one could think that it would be left without Great Britain… no one expected the EU to react badly in the face of the Covid epidemic and other crises. But what they persist in is an anti-Serb proposal for Serbia, but also for us in the Republika Srpska. You should not trust them, you should talk to them, but you should reject any proposal that does not respect the Serbian national and state position.”
In discussing the Franco-German plan for Kosovo that the West is trying to impose on Serbia, Dodik said, “I agree with Vučić when he said that he continues the discussions from the moment when the Association of Serbian Municipalities (ASM) is formed, with the executive functions that it must have as agreed. In this regard, we should not continue the talks until the ASM is formed in the agreed capacity, and not as the Albanians are now brokering. Without executive powers, there is no point in building an empty shell that serves no purpose. The West is also persistently trying to make Republika Srpska an empty shell without any content. That’s the whole problem. This time they want to make an empty shell out of ASM. I think that President Vučić is aware of this and that only what was agreed in Brussels, when Serbia made serious concessions in moving towards dialogue, must be fulfilled, not some new conditions.”
Dodik also discussed the pressure being applied on his own country to comply with Western dictates. “When someone is strong, then they ask Serbia to get involved, in order to further blame Serbia for their own failure. It’s not about reinventing the wheel. We just want the letter of the Dayton Agreement to be applied. The West is a big deceiver, primarily the Americans, the British, and even a significant part of the EU. They will, even when the signing takes place, on the same day, before the ink dries on the signature, start to destroy what the Serbs have received and try to change the position of the Serbs through additional negotiations, either in the state-legal sense of Serbia or in the Dayton position of Srpska.”
“The state that they want to create from BiH is impossible,” Dodik continued. “It is an impossible state. A possible state is the one written in Dayton. But it has been significantly desecrated, and if BiH does not return to the letter of the Dayton constitution, it will not have any opportunities in the future…. Since Vučić made Serbia significantly strong in the circumstances that are possible, he will not be of any use to the West in a few months. He is already a serious nuisance to them in the corridors. In a few months, there will be public attacks on him. In this respect, you just need to prepare, and I am an obvious example of what it looks like.”
The President of Republika Srpska also addressed Western pressure on Serbia and his country to apply sanctions against Russia. “They don't miss an opportunity to ask for sanctions, as well as to draw us in, to take a bad step towards Russia or Putin, because they think he is bad,” Dodik told Kosovo Online. “I think that the West is basically arrogant in its policy, it has never accepted and realistically considered Russia’s demands not to approach its borders. But, having done that, they are now blaming Putin in order to create an atmosphere in the West – 'here, there is the culprit for our problems.' Putin is to blame because there are no streetlights in Brussels. Who else is to blame? Dodik, of course, and now Vučić.”
“If we were to say that we condemn Russia, Putin, adhere to sanctions, introduce visas for Russians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, does anyone think that we would get anything from the West? And we would permanently lose friends who proved to be our only support in history,” Dodik added. “This is our answer to our friends and for investing in the future, because we cannot expect anything from the West…. Germany was economically prosperous because, for years and decades, it extracted cheap raw materials from Russia, because Russia was in. disarray. It suits them that when Russia is in disorder, and they oppose Putin, who united and strengthened Russia.”
Responding to Western accusations that he is a puppet of Putin, the President of Republika Srpska declared, “Suddenly it appears that Putin has stronger weapons than the West, so there is panic in the West. Now they want to see what the Russians have to use in Ukraine so that they can act. Obviously, the Russians are not stupid…. They talk about Russian influence, and Dodik, who is among the first, but no one has any influence on me, only the Serbian people. I am a man of the Serbian people, of Republika Srpska, I only answer to those who voted for me, I only behave that way. If Putin asked me to do something that is not in our interest, it would not happen. He never asked for such a thing, and the West always does. Wherever we meet, they are always looking. Therefore, our position on this is clear.”
Returning to the Franco-German plan for Kosovo, Dodik added, “In Pristina, comparisons between the Association of Serbian Municipalities and the Republika Srpska are heard every day, that is, the message that an ASM that would resemble Republika Srpska is out of the question. Are these just excuses for the ASM not to be formed, bearing in mind Kurti’s six conditions for the formation of a community?” It should be noted that the US Ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier recently declared categorically that the United States would not support an ASM having executive powers resembling those of Republika Srpska.
“The Muslims in Sarajevo, who are in contact with the Albanians in Kosovo, managed to denigrate the Republika Srpska to such a level that we are seen as some kind of bastard for Kurti. I did not deal with them, except that I followed the politics of Serbia, but now I will say – Serbia should never grant independence to Kosovo and Metohija,” Dodik declared. “Let them do whatever they think they should, they can laugh at us, but we will wait, but history is full of changes. Americans and Europeans want to say that the borders in the Balkans are finished, but they are not.”
“He [Kurti] only has American power and NATO behind him, and they are defending their newborn, aborted somewhere in history, which wants to be a state,” Dodik charged. “If they want to play states, Republika Srpska is also a state. The ASM should have executive power, and in some part, it should resemble Republika Srpska.”
