The status of Republika Srpska remains one of the most important foreign policy goals of the Russian Federation, regardless of all problems that Russia is currently facing, Russian ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said in Belgrade on Thursday.

Speaking at a book promotion at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture, the ambassador said it was Russia's commitment to fight for the preservation of Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-majority entity, and its rights, which was clearly affirmed in the talks of President Vladimir Putin, his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic and Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Milorad Dodik.

He said he was “perfectly aware” of the attempts to rule out Russia from solving the problems related to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he assessed as “impossible, just like it is not possible to solve the Kosovo issue without Russia, which is permanent member state of the UN Security Council.”

He assessed the preservation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the deal which ended the Bosnian 1992-95 war and introduced the country's constitutional system, as the most important task not only in the region but in the whole Europe if Europe wants this part of its continent stable.

“However, all developments ordered by Washington, Brussels, NATO and EU, foremost the so-called appointment of the so-called high representative as well as other decisions pose a continuation of the annulment of the Dayton (agreement) in a wish to centralise Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Botsan-Kharchenko, referring to the international peace envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina whom Russia does not recognise.

According to him, the most dangerous goal of those activities is to reduce or eliminate special relations between Republika Srpska and Serbia which are, as he said, brotherly and natural.

“Which is why the fight for the preservation of the Dayton agreement and its principles matters. Only based on the Dayton (agreement), Bosnia and Herzegovina can remain decentralised country, with preserving of Republika Srpska in full scope and capacity,” he underlined.