The President of the National Assembly of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Nenad Stevandic announced he will be visiting Russia at the invitation of the Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matviyenko.

The visit will take place from February 21 to 23, and Stevandic will be leading a delegation of three MPs from the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and the People’s Party of Srpska (NPS).

“This is our regular activity, based on previously signed agreements. The visit has nothing to do with Ukraine and the conflict, nor with the relationship between NATO and Russia,” Stevandic said.

He said that BiH is paying a much lower price for gas than Europe and that this is a result of the good relations between Serbs and Russia.

“It is untrue that we from the RS pursue a pro-Russian policy. We pursue a pro-Serb policy. Neither pro-Russian, nor anti-Russian, nor British, nor European, as was agreed upon in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We do not want to participate in the anti-Russian campaign, in burning Russian books, we stick to our neutrality that was adopted in the RS National Assembly in 2017. Turkey also adheres to a neutral policy, and is a member of the NATO pact,” Stevandic said.

Asked to comment on a statement of EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, who thanked BiH for its willingness to introduce sanctions against Russia, Stevandic said that BiH is a country with certain specifics.

“A Serb never raised his hand to vote for sanctions, those are our specifics…” Stevandic said.