Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik is going to Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in the run-up to the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina because he is the politician Moscow trusts the most in the Western Balkans, Belgrade daily Danas reported on Friday.

The daily said it was told by unnamed diplomatic sources that Dodik, the President of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, is Russia’s last remaining ally in the region, and that Putin will intentionally meet with the RS president before he meets with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.  

“Unlike the Serbian president, Dodik has clearly chosen an alliance with Moscow. Dodik is not playing several sides at once,” according to the diplomats who are claimed to be close to Russia.  

They said that Vucic is trying to “board the Russian train” through Dodik who currently has much stronger ties to Moscow than Vucic.  

Danas said that the Serbian president is trying to use this opportunity at a time when a solution to the Kosovo issue is uncertain.

“Serbian officials, headed by Vucic and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, are disappointed with the West because of the refusal of Germany and Great Britain to accept a possible Belgrade-Pristina agreement on demarcation and are not excluding the possibility of Serbia clearly siding with Russia in the coming months,” a Danas source said, adding that London and Berlin believe that Dodik could try to use a demarcation agreement on Kosovo to take the Republika Srpska out of Bosnia-Herzegovina.