Is Putin opening a new front in BiH through Dodik?

Do not allow Putin to open a new front in Bosnia for you, writes the Brussels-based newspaper "European Voice" this morning in an opinion piece by Kurt Basiner, an analyst at the Center for Democratization Policy, reports the BiH news agency Patria (NAP).

Basiner warns that Western officials must not allow the President of Russia to cause instability in BiH through the leadership of Republika Srpska with demands for an independence referendum.

The text emphasizes that it is clear that Putin does not have nearly as strong interests in BiH as in Ukraine, but that it suits him to encourage separatist "spins" through contacts between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Dodik.

- Dodik hopes to have Moscow's support for his views, and it costs Moscow nothing as long as the international community is divided on BiH – the text states, among other things. Basiner states that Russia has long had different views in the Peace Implementation Council, and Putin increasingly shows confrontational intentions. The West must show that there is no room for Russian adventurism in BiH, it is stated.