Dejan Anastasijevic: Dodik is the biggest stumbling block in Belgrade – Sarajevo relations

Dejan Anastasijevic, a journalist and political analyst from Belgrade, said in an interview with TV1 that Milorad Dodik represents the biggest obstacle to establishing good relations between Belgrade and Sarajevo.

- President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, is currently the biggest obstacle to establishing good relations between official Belgrade and Sarajevo. The Serbian president himself is in some sort of a problem as one should not expect to see normalization of the relations between Sarajevo and Belgrade as long as Dodik is doing whatever he is doing. Just like on the global level president Vucic is balancing between Russia and the West, on the regional level he is currently balancing between Sarajevo and Banja Luka, Anastasijevic said.

He thinks that Serbia is not able to control Dodik's behavior.

- Vucic is in a trouble as it is difficult to expect normalization of the relations between Sarajevo and Belgrade as long as Dodik is doing this, announcing referendums every once in a while. Serbia is not in a position to control Dodik because, contrary to Karadzic, he is installed by Belgrade but the international community which he has revolted from.

Anastasijevic also underlines the fact that, in the past, Dodik strongly supported Vucic's opponents in Serbia.

- One shouldn't forget that Dodik strongly supported Boris Tadic during previous elections, even though he, in principle, supports every government in Belgrade – it is hard to imagine anything different as that would mean that they have given upon each others, Anastasijevic said.

He further emphasized that one should not expect any improvement of the situation as long as Dodik is doing what he is doing.

- We shall see if this deadlock can be broken... That said, I'm afraid that as long as Dodik announces referendums, finances films about Karadzic and brags about his relations with Russia, it will be very difficult to normalize the relations, Anastasijevic concludes.