

Milorad Dodik. Photo: EPA-EFE/SZILARD KOSZTICSAK HUNGARY OUT

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has issued a protest note about recent comments made by the Serb member of Bosnia’s state presidency in support of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Earlier this week, Milorad Dodik stated in his interview to Russkiy reporter that he “considers Crimea to be Russian”, and that Bosnian recognition of this unilateral annexation was “necessary”.

He warned that he was not sure he could “accomplish recognition”, however, as the two other members of the Bosnian state presidency, representing the country’s Croats and Bosniaks, “have Western stances”.

After Ukraine criticised Dodik’s words, the Croat chair of the Bosnian state presidency, Željko Komšić, said Dodik was speaking in a purely personal capacity.

“His support for the illegal annexation of Crimea does not match the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but is rather his personal opinion,” he said.

Komsic also stated that, as a country aspiring to soon become an EU candidate country, Bosnia “remains true to the position of the EU, demanding that Ukraine’s independence and integrity have to be respected”.

This is not the first time that Dodik has caused anger over his position on the Russian annexation of Crimea.

In October 2018, speaking to the Russian newspaper Izvestia right after the general elections in Bosnia, Dodik said that he would use his new position as state presidency member to “submit a state-level initiative to recognise Crimea as a part of Russia”, adding that he “saw nothing wrong” with its annexation.

Ukraine challenged Dodik’s remarks then as well, qualifying his words as “hostile”.

Dodik’s pro-Russian stance and close connections with the Kremlin have often drawn criticism from political opponents and the international community alike.

However, they reflect the broadly pro-Russian sympathies of many Serbs, who cherish links with fellow Orthodox Russia and see the country as a crucial political ally in the struggle over Kosovo, whose independence Serbia contests.

Russia fiercely opposed the NATO-led air campaign against Serbia in 1999 that led to Serbia’s loss of control of the former province, most of whose inhabitants are ethnic Albanians.

As BIRN had previously reported, members of Dodik’s SNSD party have kept close ties to Russian and pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine, including Crimea.

Bosnia outlawed fighting in foreign soil, but also organising or promotion of fighting abroad, in 2014.

Although it is suspected that a number of Bosnian Serbs have volunteered to fight on the pro-Russian side in Ukraine since 2014, only one person, Gavrilo Stevic, has been charged with fighting in the country as a member of a pro-Russian paramilitary unit.

Russia abruptly annexed Crimea in 2014 following the deposition of Ukraine’s then pro-Russian president. Many countries condemned the move and the UN has twice affirmed its non-recognition of the transfer.