Like during the Nazi occupation: Bosnian Serb leadership closes bank accounts
Officials from Republika Srpska, which is under US sanctions, have announced they will close bank accounts in the republic from which they receive salaries.
This will be done to ensure that RS banks do not come under attack from Washington and its allies, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The leadership of the RS made such a decision after US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Anna Morris stated that, in addition to individuals, sanctions could also be applied to banks that opened accounts for politicians or companies included in the US blacklist of sanctions.
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik announced the closure of his accounts at all banks where he has them, “to avoid any problems for the banks” - and called on everyone else under US sanctions to do the same.
The authorities of the Republic of Sakha will try to solve the new situation with the help of “internal resources” and give the opportunity to officials who are subject to sanctions to receive salaries. Anna Morris's statement also took RS bankers by surprise: in addition to the fact that banks have significant transactions with the state, they cannot simply close the account of any individual.
On the other hand, if banks are sanctioned, economists suggest that this will mean complete collapse for them. The bankers said they would demand an explanation from the US Embassy in Bosnia.
In addition to Milorad Dodik and Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, those under American sanctions are the Chairman of the RS Assembly Nenad Stevandić, the Serbian member of the BiH Presidency Zeljka Cvijanovic, several ministers in the government of the republic, as well as Serbian officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina Nikola Špirić and Milan Tegeltija. Recently, the list was replenished with three more assistants to Dodik.
“In order not to please the Serbophobic chauvinists and neo-Nazis, I closed all my accounts. In 1942, the Nazis demanded gold from respectable, wealthy Serbs in return for a promise not to kill their children. It’s still easier for us,” Stevandich commented on the situation.
The United States imposed personal sanctions on the leadership of the RS under fictitious charges of corruption, human rights violations, the Dayton Peace Accords in BiH and separatist activities.
In fact, the leaders of the Bosnian Serbs irritate the West by not allowing Bosnia to join NATO, to join anti-Russian sanctions, and by their desire to preserve the sovereignty guaranteed by the same Dayton agreements.
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