Dodik and Minic meet Putin in Moscow days before Bosnia election

During the meeting at the Kremlin, Putin wished the governing coalition in Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s Serb-majority entity, success in the election.

“No foreign interference will change the opinion of the population,” Putin said, according to Republika Srpska media, adding that he sincerely wished the coalition success.

Putin did not specify in the publicly available remarks what he meant by foreign interference.

Dodik thanked Putin for receiving the delegation and for Russia’s position on Bosnia and Herzegovina at the United Nations.

“We feel the evil of the Brussels offices every day,” Dodik said, without specifying which decisions or policies he was referring to.

The European Union is Bosnia and Herzegovina’s largest trading partner. According to European Commission data for 2024, the EU accounted for 64 percent of the country’s total trade in goods and received 73 percent of its exports.

Dodik also said he would oppose the introduction of sanctions against Russia. Under Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitution, however, foreign policy falls under the responsibility of state-level institutions, with the country’s tripartite Presidency responsible for conducting it.

The EU Council said in August that Bosnia and Herzegovina had aligned itself with new restrictive measures against Russia. The European Commission has previously said that institutions controlled by Dodik’s SNSD have obstructed the implementation of measures with which the country formally aligned itself.

Dayton ‘failed’, Dodik tells Putin

Speaking about the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and established the country’s current constitutional structure, Dodik claimed that the agreement had “failed” and that Western countries had “destroyed” it.

He also reiterated his support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, using Moscow’s term “special military operation” to describe the invasion.

Minic thanked Putin for Russia’s support and referred to Dodik as “president”. Dodik is the president of the SNSD.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Dodik said discussions could include a gas agreement, fruit exports and cooperation in the defence industry. No agreement on any of those issues has so far been announced following the meeting.

Bosnia and Herzegovina will hold general elections on Sunday, October 4, with voters electing the three members of the state Presidency, members of state and entity parliaments, the president and vice-presidents of Republika Srpska and assemblies in the Federation entity’s ten cantons.