The American media has undertaken to quarrel between the presidents of Serbia and Republika Srpska
The information campaign in Belgrade and Sarajevo about the supposed “cooling of relations” between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the newly elected President of Republika Srpska (RS, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH) Milorad Dodik was inspired by the American media.
After the general elections in BiH on October 2, as a result of which Milorad Dodik was elected president of the Republika Srpska, a number of media in the region began an information campaign about the “cooling of relations” between the leader of the Bosnian Serbs and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
First, the Serbian tabloid “Informer”, which a few days earlier became infamous for its interview with a serial rapist, accused Milorad Dodik of having “attacked the President of Serbia” on an Internet portal close to him in Banja Luka. At the same time, the portal, which has nothing to do with the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, only described what was happening in certain Serbian media. And they groundlessly called the actions of Dodik’s opponent, the pro-Western opposition candidate for the post of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Jelena Trivic, inspired by Aleksandar Vucic.
At the same time, Trivic herself, who after the elections first proclaimed her victory and called on supporters to take to the streets to celebrate it, and then refused to recognize Dodik’s victory, did not say anything about Vucic’s support. Indeed, during the campaign she stated that in her policies she would follow the course formed in Belgrade, but this is only a “mandatory program” for any serious politician in the RS.
And the attempt to present Trivic’s support for her appearance on Serbian TV channels on the eve of the elections looks ridiculous, since there were an order of magnitude more Dodik in the studios and stories of these channels.
Schmidt and Trivich
Secondly, on October 4, on the portal of the Balkan edition of Radio Free Europe (financed from the US budget), a material appeared under the heading “Vučić “disowned” Dodik.”
In it, pro-American experts from Sarajevo and Novi Sad argued that there was a cooling of relations between Milorad Dodik and Aleksandar Vucic, Vucic supported the opposition in the elections in the Republika Srpska, and Dodik, after a recent meeting with Putin, became the main conductor of the Kremlin’s policy in the region instead of Vucic. Naturally, this text, with its additions and even harsher headlines, was published by Western-oriented media in the region, primarily in Sarajevo.
The Russian Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina was forced to respond to the situation.
“In connection with the “insider” information that appeared in some Sarajevo electronic publications regarding the content of the meeting between the President of the Russian Federation V.V. are nothing more than fabrications pulled from thin air. The main goal of such speculation is to drive a wedge between Banja Luka and Belgrade, to undermine Serbian unity against the backdrop of an aggressive Euro-Atlantic offensive in the Western Balkans,” the embassy said in a statement released on October 5.
“We proceed from the fact that the special parallel relations between the Republika Srpska and Serbia provided for by the Dayton Peace Agreement serve to jointly overcome socio-economic problems, promote humanitarian projects, and develop coordinated approaches on the most pressing issues that are important for Serbs living on both sides of the Drina,” – the Russian diplomatic mission also noted.
The fact that it is the United States that is behind the attempt to quarrel between the Serb leaders on the two banks of the Drina (the border between Serbia and the Republika Srpska runs along this river - PN note) is also evidenced by the publication on October 4 in The Washington newspaper of an article entitled “Putin is pushing Serbia and Bosnia to support his war in Ukraine." This material, which was immediately translated to the Serbian portal N1 (part of the Balkan media holding of ex-CIA head David Patraeus), also says that Putin supposedly now gives preference to Dodik over Vucic.
Moreover, after a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs directly stated that Putin emphasized the importance of maintaining good relations with Serbia, and also that the Russian leader understands the situation in the Republika Srpska and wants the approval of international law.
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