The West needs a weaker person to lead Republika Srpska than its current president, Milorad Dodik, and pressure on him has been ongoing for decades, said Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko in an interview with RIA Novosti.
The diplomat recalled that the West has already had experience with leaders of Republika Srpska who were more loyal to it, reports RT Balkan.
“There was a period of leadership when Republika Srpska was quite close to losing its powers. The West already saw the prospect of those powers being weakened. That already happened. And then Dodik came, first as prime minister at the entity level, later as president of Republika Srpska, and then as a member of the BiH Presidency,” the Russian ambassador noted.
He stressed that the West has long been battling Dodik’s policies.
“Pressure on Dodik is long-term; it has lasted for decades, not just a year,” the ambassador said.
According to him, there were various attempts to eliminate Dodik from the political scene — including through so-called “constitutional reforms” aimed at changing the powers of the entities.
“Dodik endured. There were attempts to strip away the powers that the entity has and transfer them to the BiH level. There were various efforts to use the institution of the ‘high representative,’ which is essentially no longer relevant. Not to mention the current individual, who is not a legitimate ‘high representative,’” Botsan-Kharchenko pointed out.
At the same time, he emphasized that Milorad Dodik is guided by the national interests of Republika Srpska and by the interests of cooperation and interaction with Serbia.
Source: RTRS
