MGIMO professor: “The fate of the Bosnian Serbs depends on Donbass”
What do Serbs and Russians have in common today? Why is the Bosniak elite in Sarajevo, being an ally of the United States and Turkey, seeking understanding from Moscow? What is the connection between the pre-war hysteria around the LDPR and the pressure on the Republika Srpska?
MGIMO Professor, Dean of the Faculty of International Relations, Political Science and Foreign Regional Studies of the Russian State Humanitarian University Evgeniy Kozhokin told PolitNavigator about this and much more.
In your opinion, what is the reason for the unprecedented pressure from the West and the United States, which imposed sanctions against Milorad Dodik and the ATV TV channel, on the Republika Srpska, which only wants to regain its powers in accordance with the Dayton Agreement drawn up by the Americans?
– The United States has strived and strives to establish its dominance in the world, which it politically correctly calls leadership. The population of tamed countries must follow the behavior model of correct consumers; they are allowed to work, eat, drink, have sex in any way, and watch Hollywood films. What else is needed for happiness? Presidents, congressmen, and most ordinary US citizens think so. The feeling of self-respect falls out of this “soup set”.
The main problem of the Republika Srpska is that its leadership and the majority of its citizens have a sense of self-esteem and do not want to part with it. And they want to be the masters of their country. Milorad Dodik speaks about this openly and boldly.
It is no coincidence that the same Dodik recently saidthat Bosnia and Herzegovina, in fact, is in the position of the last colony of Europe...
– Only one country in the world should have true independence – the United States of America; the rest can and should be content with limited sovereignty. This is what they think in the USA. Those who do not agree with this “axiom” inevitably come into conflict with Washington and its “correct” allies. The Republika Srpska will be punished for its insubordination and irregularity. Just as they will try to bring another wrong and rebellious country - Russia - to a common denominator.
Does Moscow understand that Russians and Serbs have a common destiny, and therefore support the Serbs, including in Bosnia?
– Russia’s support for the Serbs is both pragmatic and irrational at the same time. Russia is fighting to preserve, and ideally expand, the space of freedom. In this fight, she is looking for allies. The Serbs have proven with their past and present that they are our allies. Our Slavism, our Orthodoxy help to understand and appreciate the existential commitment to freedom of the Serbs.
Is Russia capable of helping not only the Republika Srpska, but the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina to throw off the colonial yoke of the High Representatives and become a truly independent state that decides its own destiny?
– The management system created in BiH is a violation of the basic principles of democracy, it is an example of a humiliating form of external management of the European people. And all thinking citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks - cannot help but feel this humiliation. The Bosniak leaders want to solve a triple problem in the future - to maintain and strengthen their dominant position, preserve the unity of the country, and gradually get rid of external dictates.
To solve the last part of the problem, they need to create a certain margin for maneuver. And this is the meaning of establishing certain contacts with Russia.
However, the elite of Sarajevo, as recent history has shown, may well continue to fulfill its former role as a vassal of the West and at the same time of Turkey. But for the Bosnian Serbs, support from Russia and Serbia is also a matter of survival. In your opinion, will Dodik withstand such powerful pressure from the collective West? Does the Bosnian Serb leader have a chance to remain at the helm of the Republika Srpska after the upcoming elections in the second half of the year?
– The political fate of Milorad Dodik and his like-minded people depends not only on their firmness, consistency, and intelligent determination, but also on the pan-European and global crisis that is unfolding around the DPR and LPR. The United States and its allies are going to repeat the Croatian scenario, when the Republic of Serbian Krajina was destroyed overnight.
All the hysteria created about the allegedly impending Russian aggression against Ukraine is a well-thought-out and well-orchestrated part of massive pressure on Russia in order to force it not to support the people of Donbass at the moment when the Ukrainian army, armed, trained and paid for by NATO countries, moves towards them . The outcome of the crisis in BiH largely depends on the outcome of the current crisis in relations between the United States and Russia.
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