Milorad Dodik, a close ally of the Kremlin and de facto leader of the ethnically cleansed and genocidal Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), has decided to convey his friendly message to Russian readers. He chose to do so through a major interview he gave to the publication «Russian Reporter». Those who are interested can read it in its entirety, but here we will highlight only the main theses.
The Serbian leader begins with the most important issue for his Moscow patrons. It is worth recalling that the Kremlin’s main tactical goal at the moment is to counter NATO’s expansion in the Balkans. To counter this, an anti-Western and pro-Serb coup was prepared in Montenegro, in the face of accusations that led to the arrest of Russian citizens. To the same end, the Orthodox chauvinist opposition in Macedonia is being supported, which opposes the reconciliation between Macedonians and Albanians and the neighboring Greeks, which is necessary for the country to join NATO. Therefore, Dodik hastens to assure Russian readers that the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina will use its veto right to block the country’s accession to NATO.
It is worth noting that Bosniaks, on the contrary, see the country’s accession to NATO as a guarantee against new wars and genocides, a view supported by Bosnian Croats, despite all other disagreements. But it seems that the threat of a new war does not scare Dodik. Not surprisingly, he says that «the Dayton decision is also temporary» — referring to the agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. «Both Bosnia and Herzegovina are really temporary,» he says. Bosnia should not have existed as a state in the first place and was a mistake. Apparently, just like its leading Muslim population, whom Radovan Karadžić, Dodik’s predecessor and convicted of war crimes by the Hague Tribunal, threatened with extermination if they tried to secede from Yugoslavia, which at the time was already turning from a multiethnic federation into an ornament of the Orthodox-chauvinist «Greater Serbia,» but that does not seem to scare Dodik.
It is therefore not surprising that Dodik does not like the Dayton Agreement, which created a compromise Bosnia and Herzegovina consisting of two entities — the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska — but did not define its borders. They were created by the homogenization of the population of the Republika Srpska, in other words, by the expulsion of all non-Serbs from the Republika Srpska, who before the war constituted the majority or a significant part of its separate regions. With the accompanying genocide, as in Srebrenica and, on a slightly smaller scale, in a dozen other towns like Prijedor.
Dodik, of course, is satisfied with the resulting borders of the Republika Srpska, which, according to his repeated statements, is nothing more than a part of Greater Serbia. But not the Bosnian Muslims, of course, who supported the Dayton Agreement in the expectation that the Muslims expelled from their homes would be able to return and there would be a bloodless reintegration of the multiethnic country that could develop peacefully and join the EU and NATO. As for Dodik’s dream of a Serb nation-state, according to both Bosniaks and international law, its borders end at the Drina River, which separates Bosnia from Serbia. By the way, Serbia itself includes a region with an ethnic majority — Sandžak, where Bosniak Muslims are in the majority. However, Bosnia does not make territorial claims against Serbia on this basis, nor does it claim that the creation of Serbia within its internationally recognized borders was a mistake.
In Dodik’s opinion, however, a «mistake» was made in the creation of Bosnia and, interestingly, Ukraine. «Crimea should not have been taken from Russia in the first place. It was a mistake by the communists that the West is now defending so strongly,» he says. So perhaps we should go further and recognize that the creation of Serbia itself was a «mistake» and return to the Ottoman Caliphate, which ensured centuries of peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups in this region?
Oh no, Dodik doesn’t want that. And by the way, he pays special attention to the issue of Turkish policy in the region. However, after criticizing the former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, he unexpectedly (not for us) compliments the current policy of the Turkish President Erdogan: «Now I find acceptable the course that Erdogan is pursuing, namely attempts to cooperate in certain economic and infrastructure projects, such as the construction of highways. In this way we will reach mutual understanding. At the same time, we would not welcome any political interference from Turkey aimed at diminishing the importance of the different peoples in the country. However, I have met with Erdogan twice and have not noticed such an approach from him. I do not know if it happens in meetings where I am not present. But I am inclined to believe that politicians in Sarajevo misuse references to Turkey and Erdogan more often than he himself would like. If there were such problems here, Turkey would hardly develop its presence in Serbia to such an extent — especially in terms of investments and financial support for various projects». Dodik is saying what we have already written — Bosniaks should not rely too much on Turkish support, because Turkey will pursue an economically advantageous policy in the region, occasionally spicing it up with rhetoric about brotherhood aimed at Bosniaks.
Not surprisingly, Dodik also has a positive view of another global player: «We see China as very friendly.» Who would have doubted that? If only one could learn from their experience for the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whom Dodik accuses in his interview of «radicalization», similar to how Beijing systematically accuses Uighur Muslims of «radicalization» and uses it to justify the system of «re-education centers»… But it is too early to talk about this. But there is no doubt that for Dodik and his supporters this is their strategic goal in the Balkans.