If it were merely a Bosnian reality show, it might be good fun. But it happened in real life -- and created a diplomatic storm in a teacup.
Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, the predominantly ethnically Serb part of Bosnia, announced that he had received an invitation to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. It would make him the only Balkan politician present at the January 20 event in Washington.
Convinced that an honor had been extended to him that was denied even to heads of state in the region, Dodik duly applied for a diplomatic visa as required for travel to the United States.
But almost immediately following Dodik's announcement, Bosnian Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak made it clear that only ambassadors are invited to the inauguration and that Bosnia would be represented by its Washington envoy. He also explained that any such invitation is normally sent through the Foreign Ministry and would not arrive in the form of a private letter, as Dodik was suggesting.
In response, Dodik presented his "invitation" during a live interview on N1TV, albeit without revealing the letterhead or the signature.
It has since become clear, however, that Dodik has not been invited to Trump's official inauguration ceremony but to a private ball organized by religious and conservative groups (including the Tea Party) on the margins of Trump's inauguration.
The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo subsequently confirmed that Dodik was not on the guest list at its disposal of invitees to the inauguration. It added that it did not have a list of planned attendees for events on the sidelines of the inauguration.
And in fact, the U.S. Embassy did not issue Dodik a diplomatic visa, reportedly because he would not be representing his country at the event.
But Dodik seemed to be suggesting that there was a more sinister reason behind the perceived snub.
"For procedural reasons, I had applied for the visa earlier, but my request had been denied on the grounds that I am not an official representative of the Bosnian state and am therefore ineligible for that visa, which I have previously been granted on a regular basis," Dodik explained.
He went on to give a detailed account of a conversation he purportedly had a week ago with Hoyt Brian Yee, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs. According to Dodik, Yee asked him to renounce his party's policies -- seen by critics as ethnically divisive -- and advised him to cooperate with the Bosnian state prosecutor over the legality of the recent referendum he had engineered in Republika Srpska. He described the dialogue with Yee as "a harangue organized by U.S. Ambassador in Bosnia Maureen Cormack."
"I said that the current Bosnian crisis is mostly the fault of the outgoing U.S. administration, and I asked them to leave Bosnia and stop interfering. I also made it clear that my party will not give up its policies," Dodik insisted.
He added that Cormack had been a part of the telephone conversation.
The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo gave its own account of Dodik's exchange with the State Department official and reiterated its commitment to the Dayton peace accords.
"As a sign of continued U.S. commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia, and the strengthening of democratic values and institutions in this country, the Deputy Assistant Secretary Hoyt Yee and Ambassador Maureen Cormack had a conversation with the president of the Serb Republic in order to express our concern over his recent public statements and actions, and to reiterate our previously stated position -- that refusal to cooperate with the [Bosnian] constitutional court is a violation of the rule of law, and that those responsible must face the consequences. We take very seriously every attempt to undermine the Dayton peace accords."
However, on December 27, Dodik was back in Sarajevo to apply for a regular U.S. visa, as he is determined not to miss the ball.
"What is the purpose of presenting a private invitation to a private function as an official summons extended by the U.S. administration to the presidential inauguration? It doesn't make sense. This was an embarrassment that could have been avoided," Minister Crnadak said in an interview with RFE/RL's Balkan Service.
