Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia's three-member Presidency and the leader of the SNSD party, said foreigners will not stop him from winning the upcoming October elections.

Speaking to the Serbian TV channel ‘Happy TV’, Dodik expressed suspicion about Bosnia's European integration, noting that the European Union will fall apart by the time Bosnia and Herzegovina is ready to join.

He also said that normally the EU membership is granted only to the countries with defined borders, but now Ukraine was granted the candidate status although it is likely to be divided into two.

“And they tell us you must meet the standards. Which standards?,” Dodik asked, noting also that Serbia is being “tortured by criteria, values, chapters” and that it is all “turned upside down.”

Dodik noted that Europe is taking electricity from Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-majority entity, without any criteria, while for all other goods the criteria is very high.

Asked about the role of the US special envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, Dodik said that the Americans are not giving up on the centralisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and making Sarajevo the capital city that the Serbs would worship.

Dodik, whose SNSD is the ruling party in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, often brings up the topic of Republika Srpska's secession, sometimes announcing its merging with the neighbouring Serbia.

According to him, Republika Srpska poses an “excess” for the West and there were attempts to abolish it, which he prevented.

Dodik said that Republika Srpska has never had more friends than it has now.