Milorad Dodik is a Bosnian Serb politician acting as the 8th president of Republika Srpska since 2022, having earlier served from 2010 to 2018. He also performed as the 7th Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2018 to 2022. He is a pro-Putin politician in the Balkans. On 8 January 2023, Dodik rewarded Russian President Vladimir Putin in absentia with the entity’s highest decoration, the Order of the Republika Srpska.
Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia head of the Serbian entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2024 and reaffirmed the entity’s denial to join Western sanctions against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, stated he “affirmed the good relations” that Republika Srpska has “with the Russian state and with you” at the gathering in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.
“What we are doing in the current circumstances is that we abandon any possibility of joining Western sanctions against Russia,” Dodik said, according to Radio-Television of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian entity’s public broadcaster.
It was Dodik’s fourth gathering with Putin since Russia undertook its invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Dodik is under U.S. and U.K. sanctions for his apparent obstruction of the Dayton agreement and breaking the legitimacy of Bosnia. He has devoured the past two years attempting to corrupt central Bosnian authority and establishing parallel institutions to further his longtime dangers to divide the country for good, receiving harsh rebukes from Western officials.
“I use good relations with Putin, whom I value as a great statesman of a great country, a powerful man who has always been fair to us. He never asked for anything. Putin himself has told me 10 times that he respects the Dayton Agreement, said Dodik.
On 29 June, Bosnian Foreign Minister Bisera Turković had a hectic diplomatic exchange with Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya at a UN Security Council meeting in New York City. The topic of the conference was the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the focus being on the Office of the High Representative, concerning whether it’s time for its closure after being established in 1995 following the Bosnian War. Her speech at the Security Council was heavily slammed by Dodik. Some days before, Dodik unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Turković’s Security Council address, even penning a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asking him for help.
On 2 December 2021, Dodik had a gathering with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, with Dodik saying “He [Putin] is familiar with the details of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Following Russia’s admitting of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic as independent nations on 21 February 2022, which are debated territories in the Ukrainian region of Donbas, Dodik stated that Republika Srpska will seek neutrality at the national level regarding the issue of Ukraine.
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