The President of the Republika Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik, announced that he will travel to Russia on May 23rd, where he should have a meeting with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Dodik’s meetings with Putin are becoming commonplace, and it seems that the representatives of the International Community have come to terms with it.
Since the beginning of Russia’s complete aggression against Ukraine, Milorad Dodik has met twice with the leader of Russia Vladimir Putin, who is ostracized in the civilized world.
On two previous occasions, Dodik met with Putin as a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), while the announced meeting on May 23rd would be the first since the General Elections and in the capacity of the President of the RS. Dodik met with Putin in June and September 2022.
Vladimir Putin is a person with whom European Union (EU) officials avoid meetings, and his diplomatic activities are largely limited to part of the countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), China, and several other countries that are trying to position themselves as mediators in achieving peace.
Unlike African and Asian countries, BiH is a country that has clear ambitions for Euro-Atlantic integration. Although Dodik is trying to sabotage the part related to the Atlantic integrations, i.e. the NATO alliance, he is still, at least in a rhetorical sense, an advocate of integration into the EU at meetings with EU representatives. One of the assumed obligations of BiH in relations with the EU is monitoring the foreign policy implemented by the EU.
In this sense, whenever possible, Dodik blocks joining the sanctions introduced by the EU, referring to the documents adopted by the National Assembly of the RS (NARS), on the “neutrality” of this entity. However, regular meetings with Putin at a time when his armada is carrying out aggression against Ukraine are not an indicator of neutrality, but of a clear alignment on the Russian side.
What attracts more attention is the inertness of the International Community, especially the EU. Dodik is under sanctions from the United States (U.S.) and Great Britain, which have not had any effect on his political strength. On the other hand, the EUand its members have not imposed official sanctions on Dodik, and one of the reasons is that EU member Hungary would oppose it.
“You yourself see that Brussels sometimes resorts to sanctions for the sake of simplicity, but if we look at how successful sanctions have been in the past decades, I think we can conclude that they did not lead to significant results. The situation is the same now with Brussels sanctions. We absolutely do not agree to the EU introducing any sanctions in relation to the Western Balkans,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Sarajevo.
Another politician from Hungary, EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi, was in Sarajevo this week and gave a fairly mild answer to a journalist’s question about Dodik’s visit to Putin.
“As for the visit to Russia, our allies are not going to Russia. Our support is there and that’s why I’m here. We need concrete results,” said Varhelyi.
Therefore, it seems that European bureaucrats have concluded that Dodik’s stays with Putin do not represent a big problem for them, as long as the status quo in BiH does not change. Dodik benefits from the visit by presenting himself as a serious politician. Putin’s benefit is that it shows he still has at least some allies in parts of Europe.
Finally, with constant rhetoric and earlier visits, Dodik “boiledthe frog” and got the EU used to the fact that he is maintaining relations with the rejected Russia. It seems that Dodik is allowed everything, and until it will stay like that, it remains to be seen, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
