Putin recruits Dodik: Did the President of Republika Srpska take 500 million euros to continue with the referendum story?

Tomislav Nikolić is causing me serious problems with his platform on Kosovo, and I learned about what it says from the media. This was stated by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, according to "Blic", to representatives of non-governmental organizations with whom he spoke last week, reports the Patria News Agency.

The President of the Serbian government, we remind you, held two meetings with the leaders of about ten NGOs, dedicated to the state of human rights in Serbia, European integration, and security issues.

 Vučić said on that occasion that he has big problems with President Tomislav Nikolić, who, without any consultation with him, wrote and then forwarded to some media a proposal for a state platform on Kosovo.

This document, which Nikolić intended for the Government and the National Assembly to adopt, did not reach Vučić's desk before some excerpts appeared in the public, "from unofficial sources". This angered Vučić, who, in his own words, could not believe what the President of Serbia was doing.

Also, the Prime Minister explained to his interlocutors from NGOs, the Government and he personally found themselves in a difficult situation on how to react to Nikolić's document - if they accepted it, Serbia would anger the West, and if they rejected it, it would seem that the Government was against Kosovo being in Serbia.

Tomislav Nikolić's plan for Kosovo envisages that this territory formally has the status of an autonomous province within Serbia, with powers similar to a federal unit or republic, reminiscent of the solutions from the 1974 SFRY Constitution.

If the Government and the Assembly of Serbia were to ask the EU and the UN to urgently initiate negotiations on the "final status" of Kosovo, as Nikolić envisions, and on these grounds, it would severely jeopardize the implementation of the Brussels Agreement and everything achieved so far in the dialogue with Pristina under the auspices of the EU. This would also block Serbia's European path, Vučić assessed in his conversation with NGOs.

The Prime Minister also complained about the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik. As he said, Dodik has firmly connected with the Russians, who, during his visit to Moscow on May 9, offered him 500 million euros in aid for Republika Srpska, as well as a lower price for imported Russian gas.

In return, Dodik would continue to insist on a referendum on Republika Srpska's remaining in BiH, which significantly complicates Serbia's position in the region and increases Western pressure on Belgrade to "calm down" Dodik.