Republika Srpska (RS) entity President Milorad Dodik, who is on the US and Great Britain’s sanctions list, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 21 in the Republic of Tatarstan, which is part of the Russian Federation, Radio-Television Republika Srpska reported on Wednesday.

This is Dodik's fourth meeting with Putin since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and their tenth conversation since 2014.

“We confirmed the good relations that the RS has and cultivates towards the Russian state and towards you. What we are doing under the current circumstances is rejecting any possibility of joining Western sanctions against Russia. In particular, we unhesitatingly refuse to join NATO membership. When the West came, it immediately privatized commercial banks and now they choose whether they want to work with us and they do it for purely political reasons,” Dodik said.

Dodik also complained to Putin that “the opposition and alternative groups are constantly working to undermine the RS.” He complained about the sanctions imposed on him, but boasted of his “excellent relations with [Serbian President Aleksandar] Vucic and [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban”.

Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022, the United States, the European Union, Great Britain and their allies have introduced a series of sanctions against Russia that, among other things, target their economy and financial system.

The Office of the High Representative (OHR) in BiH, on the occasion of Dodik's meeting with Putin, told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that “BiH has undertaken to follow the security and foreign policy guidelines of the EU,” as a candidate country for membership in the European Union (EU).

“This excludes cooperation with countries that are under sanctions, as well as personal meetings with the heads of those countries,” the OHR pointed out.

The President of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s RS entity is one of the few officials who has met with Russian and Belarusian officials since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.