Introduction
Introduction Statistics Contact Development Disclaimer Help
.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
In a tiny European statelet, a Putin ally is running out of road
By Christian Edwards, CNN
Updated:
10:30 AM EDT, Sat August 9, 2025
Source: CNN
When Bosnia’s electoral authorities stripped Milorad Dodik of his
post as president of the tiny Serb-majority statelet Republika Srpska,
he did his best to appear unfazed. Instead, the divisive,
genocide-denying nationalist laid down his own challenge to the
institutions trying to topple him.
“What if I refuse?” he asked.
Bosnia may be about to find out.
Dodik, a key Balkan ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been
in and around power in Bosnia since 2006, picking at the seams of the
country’s patchwork multiethnic state. That state was birthed in 1995
by the Dayton Peace Accords, which halted the violence that spread
across the former Yugoslavia as it crumbled in the 1990s, driven by
then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s frenzied push to create a
“Greater Serbia.”
Although Dayton halted the Bosnian War, it left the country split along
ethnic lines. Bosnia comprises two entities: the Federation, where
Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) share power with Croats, and the
Serb-dominated Republika Srpska. Above them sits a mostly toothless
central government and a foreign “High Representative,” who is
bestowed with far-reaching powers to implement the deal and keep the
peace.
Dodik – who for years has threatened to split from Bosnia and
“reunite” with Serbia – was convicted in February of defying the
orders of Christian Schmidt, the current High Representative. Last
week, an appeals court upheld his one-year prison sentence and six-year
ban on holding office. Although Dodik has avoided prison by paying a
fine, Bosnia’s electoral commission on Wednesday chose to apply the
law which automatically removes an official from office if sentenced to
more than six months in jail.
After two decades of raging against Bosnia’s state-level
institutions, emboldened by his cast of illiberal allies and the lack
of pushback from the European Union, many in Bosnia were stunned that
authorities moved so quickly to implement the court’s ruling.
“Since 2006, Dodik has done his damned best to weaken Bosnia’s
institutions and hollow out the state from the inside,” Arminka
Helić, who fled the wars in the 1990s and now sits in Britain’s
House of Lords, told CNN. “I don’t think he would have expected,
after all his threats and all the noise, that anyone would dare
question his position.”
The question now is whether Dodik goes quietly or puts up a fight, she
said.
For now, the latter looks more likely. Dodik has threatened to prevent
new elections from taking place – if necessary, by force – and has
looked to his allies in Belgrade, Moscow and Budapest for support.
“Surrender is not an option,” Dodik said.
Moscow, which has long looked to Dodik to foment trouble in the
Balkans, has warned that the region could spiral “out of control.”
Its embassy in Bosnia warned the country was making a “historic
mistake.”
“Has its reputation as the ‘European powder keg’ been
forgotten…?” it asked.
Overtures to Trump
When Dodik first took power, Western diplomats were delighted. After
the bloodbath of the 1990s, he seemed to herald an era of stability.
For Madeleine Albright, then-US Secretary of State, Dodik was a
“breath of fresh air.”
But since then, Dodik has refashioned himself as an unrepentant
nationalist, denying the genocide of 8,000 Bosniaks at Srebrenica in
1995, the war’s most notorious massacre, and often meeting with Putin
in Moscow.
For years, Dodik has raged against the structures of the Dayton
agreement, making it harder for Bosnian institutions to operate in his
entity and threatening, ultimately, to split Srpska from the rest of
the country.
He has made a nemesis of Christian Schmidt, the current High
Representative and a former government minister in Germany under
then-Chancellor Angela Merkel. Dodik casts Schmidt as an albatross
around Srpska’s neck, claiming his powers trample on the will of Serb
voters.
Since Dodik’s conviction, his European allies have begun to take up
his cause. Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, dismissed the
case against Dodik as an attempt by the foreign-installed High
Representative “to remove him for opposing their globalist elite
agenda.”
Marko Djurić, Serbia’s foreign minister, also said Schmidt was
subjecting Dodik to “a political witch hunt,” using “undemocratic
methods” to thwart “the will of the people.”
Focusing his complaints against Schmidt is a “smart strategy,”
Adnan Ćerimagić, a senior analyst at the European Stability
Initiative, told CNN.
Even defenders of Bosnia’s institutions find it hard to justify the
powers granted to Schmidt. High Representatives are appointed by a
council comprising several Western nations and bestowed with the power
to impose annul laws as well as appoint and remove officials. Paddy
Ashdown, a former British MP who previously served as High
Representative, said the role gave him “powers that ought to make any
liberal blush.”
“No other person in Europe today, at least in the democratic part,
has that power: simply to wake up, access his website, and post new
laws, decisions and dismiss people,” said Ćerimagić.
Seeking more heavyweight diplomatic support, Dodik has begun to ramp up
his overtures to the Trump administration, claiming that he, like the
US president, has been subjected to “lawfare” by an unelected
bureaucrat.
Echoing criticisms made by Vice President JD Vance in his infamous
Munich speech earlier this year, Dodik has claimed that, in attempting
to remove him from office, European authorities are ignoring the will
of the people.
He has also attempted to paint himself as a victimized Christian leader
in a Muslim-majority country.
“He wants to paint himself as a kindred soul sitting out there in a
little entity in the Balkans, who is not only going through the same
trials and tribulations that President Trump went through, but is also
standing there as the sole figure defending the rule of law and
Christianity from chaos,” Helić said.
‘A desperate man’
The electoral authorities’ decision against Dodik will take effect
once an appeals period expires. Early elections will then be called
within 90 days.
But confusion remains over who will enforce the decision if Dodik
refuses to stand down, or obstructs the new elections. Although the EU
expanded its peacekeeping force in the country in March, those troops
did not move to detain Dodik even when a warrant was active for his
arrest earlier this year.
Jasmin Mujanović, a senior fellow at New Lines Institute, told CNN
that Bosnian and European authorities will face a “major test” if
Dodik attempts to stay in post.
“If you can’t deal with the likes of Milorad Dodik, at least from
the EU’s perspective, you really have no business talking about
competing with the likes of (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping or Vladimir
Putin or whoever else,” he said.
Although Dodik has threatened to defy the ruling, Mujanović said much
of his support base in the entity has withered away. For months, there
has been “elite defection” in Republika Srpska, as the political
opposition begins to imagine a “post-Dodik future.”
Nebojša Vukanović, founder of an opposition party in the entity, said
only Dodik’s total removal from office could end the “constant
crisis” in Bosnian politics, and would finally “free the
institutions to prosecute those responsible for crime and
corruption.” Dodik is under US sanctions for cultivating a “corrupt
patronage network.”
But although some in Srpska may be beginning to imagine political life
without Dodik, Helić warned he could take reckless actions – such as
attempting full secession from Bosnia – if he feels he has nothing to
lose.
“A desperate man might decide to do something that would further
destabilize the country,” she said.
<- back to index
You are viewing proxied material from codevoid.de. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.