Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is talking in Belgrade with the ousted president of Bosnian Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik “about all important regional issues“, Serbian media reported, BTA reports.
“A brotherly meeting with President Dodik and a conversation about all important regional issues. We continue next week“, Vucic wrote yesterday on his Instagram profile.
Their previous meeting was on August 14, TANJUG recalls.
In his publication, Vucic calls Dodik “president“, although on August 18, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina upheld the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to revoke Dodik's mandate, Radio Free Europe notes.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced in early August that Dodik had been sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban from holding public office in Bosnia for failing to comply with the decisions of the High Representative of the international community in the country, Christian Schmidt.
Dodik's legal team asked the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to convert the one-year prison sentence into a fine, as Bosnian justice allows. The court accepted this request.
Dodik rejected the decision to terminate his mandate and remained in office, but the CEC scheduled early presidential elections for 23 November. At the same time, the parliament of Republika Srpska called a referendum for 25 October, in which the citizens of Republika Srpska would be asked whether they accept the court's verdict against Dodik, as well as the CEC's decision to revoke his mandate as president.
Under the terms of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the Bosnian War (1992-1995), the country is divided into two semi-autonomous parts - Republika Srpska, populated mainly by Bosnian Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (a Muslim-Croat federation), where Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian Croats live. Each part has its own government, parliament and police, but the two are linked by common state-level institutions, including a judiciary, army, security services and tax administration. The Dayton Agreement gives the high representative of the international community broad powers, including the power to enforce laws and appoint and dismiss civil servants.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet with Dodik in Moscow today.
Dodik has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin eight times since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Radio Free Europe recalls.