The Bosnian Serb leader who is being accused of provoking a war by pursuing the breakup of Bosnia and Herzegovina has "minimized" the threat of Western sanctions and hinted at an imminent summit with Vladimir Putin, saying: "I was not elected to be a coward."
In an interview with The Guardian, Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the tripartite leadership of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that he "would not be affected" by the protests from London, Washington, Berlin and Brussels, Telegraph reports.
Dodik, 62, a key figure in Bosnian politics for 30 years and once a favorite of the West, insisted his plans must not lead to the end of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Even sanctions and cuts to EU funds would only force him to accept investment offers from China, Dodik said, and he expected to see Russia's leader "very soon."
“And I even think I like that,” Dodik is quoted as saying. “When I go to Putin, (he) has no demands. He just says, ‘What can I help with?’ Whatever I’ve discussed with him, I’ve never been deceived about that. I don’t know what else to base my trust on, if not for that. With [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping, he also says, ‘If there’s anything I can help with, I’m there.’”
Otherwise, Dodik has been widely condemned in recent weeks for his stated intention to withdraw the Serb part of Bosnia-Herzegovina from state-level institutions, such as the tax administration, the judiciary, the intelligence agency and even the national army, in order to create of a Serbian force.
The proposal has been described in a report to the UN as tantamount to "partition" and a dangerous threat to the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, which ended the war that killed 100,000 people after the breakup of Yugoslavia. /Telegrafi/
