The ongoing phase of the "end of the liberal democratic order" will have repercussions for Bosnia and Herzegovina and citizens must be ready for a completely different political logic in the coming months and years, Senior Researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, Vedran Dzihic, told N1.

Dzihic argued that sanctions against Russia will jeopardise the recovery of the world economy from the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and could very easily cause more inflation.

He said that ordinary citizens will “feel the dilemmas of how to provide themselves with basic necessities and how to pay high fuel prices,” stressing that this is especially the case for people in the Western Balkans.

He also stressed that the European Union will have to find a new approach to all those regions where Vladimir Putin, directly or indirectly, endangers Western values, which also applies to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, Dzihic also expressed hope that this moment of the Ukrainian crisis can serve as a catalyst for the West to show a more complex, clear and stronger response to what is happening in the Balkans, as well as to understand that BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik enjoys Putin's direct support and endangers the entire region with his activities.

“What Russia and Putin are doing represents a completely new paradigmatic moment in the history of Europe, we are already at war,” he told N1.
He said that what is happening represents “direct aggression against Ukraine” and a “direct attack” on European values.

“In a way, Putin is reintroducing to the level of politics some of the principles we know from the 18th, 19th centuries and the Cold War – the principle of the superiority of the stronger, the principle of power, one-sided decision-making and the triumph of the irrational, reactionary, which we did not expect to happen in the 21st century,” he said.

According to Dzihic, it remains unclear where the Russian president plans to stop his campaign.

“What is especially important for the citizens of the Balkans is to know that we are already at war, this is a war, it is not just a limited intervention, the question is where Putin will stop,” said Dzihic.

“Given the number of troops in eastern Ukraine, I don't think Putin plans to stop in two provinces. I am afraid that the price that Putin is ready to pay is very high,” he warned.