Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia president of the Serbian entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina, met with Belarusian President leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Minsk and announced plans this week to travel to Moscow where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of an extended journey in the region.
Radio-Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS) reported that prior to the February 19 meeting with Lukashenka, Dodik held discussions with Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhey Aleynyk. Details of the meetings weren’t immediately disclosed.
Dodik is under U.S. and U.K. sanctions for alleged obstruction of the Dayton Peace Agreement and violating the legitimacy of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He has spent the past two years attempting to erode central Bosnian authority and establishing parallel institutions to further his longtime threats to divide the country for good, receiving harsh rebukes from Western officials.
Dodik is among the few Western Balkan officials to engage in talks with Russian and Belarusian counterparts despite Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Dodik met in Moscow in September 2022 with Putin and received the Russian leader's backing in his upcoming bid for reelection.
He met with Lukashenka in June 2019. At that time, he was on an official visit as a member of the tripartite presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Since the Dayton peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 Bosnian War, the country has consisted of the Bosniak-Croat federation and the mostly ethnic Serb Republika Srpska under a weak central government.
On February 18, Dodik stated on his official website that he did not come to Belarus "to ask for military aid."
Instead, he expressed his intention for Belarus "to understand the struggles of Serbs in Republika Srpska," emphasizing "their fight for sovereignty, status, and freedom."
"Those who claim that Republika Srpska is isolated probably think that we should be sitting in [U.S. President Joe] Biden's office and watching him stumble. Let them say what they want," Dodik said, adding that he had "a busy schedule."
"After Lukashenka, I will talk with Putin in two or three days, then with the president of Tatarstan [Rustam Minnikhanov]," said Dodik, referring to the autonomous Russian republic.
He said he plans to visit NATO member Montenegro next, where he will meet with the president of the National Assembly -- pro-Serbia, pro-Russia politician Andrija Mandic.
He said he will then meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the southern city of Antalya.
Dodik said he also plans a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Banja Luka in March.
Belarusian authoritarian leader Lukashenka and his allies are isolated and under a series of Western sanctions over the brutal crackdown on mass protests that followed Lukashenka’s disputed reelection in 2020 and ongoing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Based on the Stabilization and Association Agreement, Bosnia-Herzegovina has the obligation to harmonize its foreign policy with the views of the EU foreign and security policy.
Bosnia-Herzegovina, as a nation, has joined the EU sanctions against Moscow. However, the implementation has faced obstacles due to the obstruction by Srpska officials led by Dodik.