Dodik: I will ask Russia to block the extension of the EUFOR mission and support the independence of the RS

(Patria) - SNSD leader Milorad Dodik announced in an interview with Sputnik that he will ask Russia to veto the extension of the Althea (EUFOR) mission. Every year at the beginning of November, the Althea Mission is extended in the UN Security Council.

Dodik announced his upcoming trip to Moscow where he will hold meetings.

"I believe that sometime in October I will go to Russia again and that sometime during that period I will meet again with the President of Russia.

But now I will go with the intention of animating our Russian friends in some kind of preparation for the UN General Assembly and I will ask them to explain this situation and to support us in our effort to go with a referendum for independence. That will be our first conversation on this topic. We have talked many times before but it was always about preserving peace and stability. We do not think that a referendum can undermine peace and stability. It is important that we, as a constituent people, have the political right to go to a referendum and to declare ourselves on that," said Dodik.

He announced that he will most likely ask his Russian friends to withdraw their consent and raise a veto in the Security Council for Althea, the European international forces in BiH.

"They have most often been used as a threat to us Serbs and as part of that occupying international authority. To free ourselves from all that, we must demand that those occupying forces withdraw and that foreigners step away from decision-making. That is not possible at the level of BiH, and that is why the RS must declare itself independent and have its own system of functioning, outside of Sarajevo and outside of foreigners. And now it is evident that not only a thaw but also an agreement between President Putin and President Trump will obviously come. We see Europeans literally whimpering as they wait in line. Two years ago, when I was a guest at the diplomatic academy in Vienna, they asked me why I meet with President (Putin). I told them that when all this is over, most likely when you stand in line before Putin, I won't be able to get past you because of how many of you will be there. That is already happening now," he said.