Published February 21,2024
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President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday awarded Bosnian Serb chief Milorad Dodik a prime Russian honour, officers stated, within the newest signal of their shut ties.
Putin gave Dodik the Order of Alexander Nevsky, certainly one of Russia’s highest medals, throughout a gathering in Kazan, the capital of the nation’s Tatarstan area.
Dodik acquired the order for his “contribution to the development of cooperation between the Russian Federation and Bosnia and Herzegovina and for reinforcing the partnership with Republika Srpska”, in response to statements by the Kremlin and experiences on RTRS, Srpska’s public tv.
Russia has traditionally been an ally of Serbia and Serbs and the shut relationship between Dodik and Putin has raised considerations as Dodik has challenged Bosnia’s post-war ruling construction over the previous a number of months.
This has raised tensions in a rustic the place some 100,000 individuals died in a civil struggle in the course of the Nineties.
Dodik vowed to proceed to oppose any steps to get Bosnia nearer to NATO “despite persistent pressure”.
“It is neither… logical nor normal that we accept NATO membership,” he stated in response to RTRS.
Putin hailed the “long-standing” and “absolutely constructive” relations between Moscow and Republika Srpska (RS).
“I very much expect that even more will be done in our relations,” Putin stated, in response to a Kremlin assertion.
“We know that the situation in the republic is not easy. We are ready to talk about this too,” he stated.
Tensions have been simmering in Bosnia for months, after Dodik signed controversial laws that refused to recognise selections made by Bosnia’s worldwide excessive consultant and the constitutional court docket.
The excessive consultant is charged with overseeing the enforcement of the Dayton Agreement that ended the nation’s bloody civil struggle.
Bosnia has been ruled by a dysfunctional administrative system created beneath the Dayton pact that divides the nation into two our bodies: a Muslim-Croat federation and a Bosnian entity often called Republika Srpska, linked by a weak central authorities.
The two entities are assured a big diploma of autonomy.
Dodik — a Kremlin ally beneath US sanctions — has held monumental sway over RS for years and has incessantly stoked ethnic tensions and threatened to secede.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
