Bosnian Serb leader Dodik's journey from Western darling to pro-Russian separatist

Record ID: 1987264

  • Title: Bosnian Serb leader Dodik's journey from Western darling to pro-Russian separatist
  • Date: 27th March 2025
  • Summary: BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (FILE - FEBRUARY 26, 2008) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) POSTER WITH PICTURE OF PUTIN AT RALLY AGAINST KOSOVO'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DODIK ADDRESSING RALLY BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (FILE - NOVEMBER 15, 2010) (REUTERS) DODIK SIGNING DOCUMENT TO BECOME PRESIDENT OF SERB REPUBLIC DODIK KISSING SERB REPUBLIC FLAG AND CROSSING HI
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Milorad Dodik
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Topics: Europe,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA005178326032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: When a court sentenced Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik to jail last month for defying the order of an international peace envoy, Moscow rushed to his defence, publicly calling the move "unacceptable" and "politically motivated."
    Buoyed by the support, Dodik barred the state's authorities from the Serb region of Bosnia, prompting an arrest warrant from state prosecutors.
    In nearly three decades in top government jobs in Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, Dodik, 66, has shaped the national political agenda and - according to his critics - deepened ethnic divides between Christian Serbs and Croats and Muslim Bosniaks.
    In a speech to the region's parliament on March 13, he dared state police to come and detain him - a move that many fear would lead to clashes with the local, loyalist forces.
    The statement marked a new low point in relations between Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic and state authorities and raised fears that the Balkan country might slip back into the kind of ethnic tensions that led to war in the 1990s.
    Amid the tension, the EU added hundreds of troops to its EUFOR peace force, deployed in Bosnia in 2004 to replace thousands of NATO troops.
    It also highlighted the complete turnaround for Dodik, from a moderate backed by the West to replace wartime nationalists to a pro-Russian separatist threatening the entire integrity of the Bosnian state.
    EARLY REFORMER
    A burly basketball fan, Dodik was the first Serb politician to recognize the massacre of about 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war as genocide.
    After the U.S.-sponsored Dayton peace accords ended the war, the West was looking for a new Serb leader as an alternative to the nationalists, many of whom were indicted for war crimes. Dodik appeared to fit the bill.
    With Western backing in 1998 he became the prime minister of the Serb Republic, which makes up postwar Bosnia along with the Bosniak-Croat Federation, even though his party had only two seats in the regional parliament.
    But after a lost election in 2001, Dodik began embracing nationalist rhetoric dear to Serbs. He returned to power in 2006.
    DRAMATIC CHANGE
    His stance on the war changed dramatically. He denied the Srebrenica genocide ever took place and played down Serbian war crimes in Bosnia, welcoming those convicted for them and later released from jail as heroes.
    In all, Dodik has served three terms as the region's prime minister and three terms as its president. In that time, his politics became increasingly nationalistic and pro-Russian. For 10 years, he has called for secession from Bosnia and unification with Serbia.
    The United States have imposed a series of sanctions against him for violating the terms of the peace deal and corruption, which he denies. He was also sanctioned by Britain for undermining the peace and stability in Bosnia.
    (Production: Amel Emric, Fedja Grulovic, Anna Lubowicka, Malgorzata Wojtunik)
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