MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday it believed a one-year jail term and political ban handed down to Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik was politically-motivated and could have negative and destabilising consequences for the Balkans.
Bosnia’s state court on Wednesday convicted Dodik for defying the orders of an international peace envoy and sentenced him to one year in prison and ordered him to step down as president of the country’s Serb-dominated region for six years.
Dodik, who has close ties with Russia, has rejected the indictment and retaliated with measures to reduce the state’s presence in his Serb-dominated region of Bosnia by banning the state prosecutor, the state court, and the intelligence agency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had met Dodik many times and had a constructive working relationship with him.
“What happened in Sarajevo certainly provokes our negative reaction. We condemn such actions because they can have very negative consequences for the situation, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but also in the Balkans as a whole,” Peskov told reporters.
“These are actions that will and could lead to the destabilisation of the situation, which is very bad. We believe that this persecution of Dodik is absolutely political in nature and is directed not only against Dodik personally, but also, in fact, against all patriotic Serbian forces. This is also unacceptable.”
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
