Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska (RS), thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “principled position” of Russia, which voted against the Resolution on Srebrenica in the United Nations General Assembly, Radio Television (RT) RS reported.
Dodik, who is under US and British sanctions, met with Putin on Thursday afternoon in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum.
At the meeting with Dodik, as reported by RTRS, Putin said that Russia is not changing its position regarding the Dayton Agreement, and stated that “Dayton is the basis for preserving the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also for development.”
On May 23, the UN Assembly adopted a Resolution declaring July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Genocide in Srebrenica, and calls for an end to the denial of genocide and the glorification of war criminals.
The adoption of the Resolution was opposed by leaders in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. entity RS, with the support of Russia and China.
A meeting in a time of crisis
Dodik met with Putin at the moment of the latest political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, caused by the moves of the authorities of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity RS after the adoption of the Resolution on Srebrenica in the UN Assembly.
The Government of the RS has appointed a working group with the aim of drafting a proposal for an agreement on “peaceful disassociation” in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On June 3, RS ministers in the BiH Council of Ministers also blocked the agreement that citizens of Poland, Romania and Slovenia residing in BiH could vote in the European elections from June 6 to 9, due to the support of those countries for the Resolution on Srebrenica in the UN.
Dodik’s party also announced the launch of an initiative to change the name of Srebrenica, on whose territory Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide in July 1995 against more than 8,000 Bosniaks, as determined by the verdicts of international courts, RSE writes.
