Dodik announced the growth of international support for Republika Srpska

Recently, the Bosnian Serbs have gained many allies in other countries. This was announced on April 18 by the President of Republika Srpska (Entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)) Milorad Dodik in an interview with the newspaper Glas Srpske.

"We are not going to fight, but we will defend Republika Srpska by political means. <...> We are fighting for the status of Republika Srpska," Dodik said.

According to him, seven to eight years ago, the entity had no significant allies in the European Union (EU), but now the situation has changed. Currently, the dominant parties of Austria, Germany, France and Italy support the Bosnian Serbs, Dodik stressed.

"Today, according to our estimates, we have 140-150 members of the European Parliament who will not hesitate to side with Republika Srpska," he said, citing the example of the Austrian Freedom Party, the German Alternative for Germany, the French National Union and the Italian League party.

Dodik also noted the entity's good ties with Russia, Azerbaijan and China, as well as improved relations with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

"If I receive an invitation to the BRICS summit, I will gladly accept it"

President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik — on the power of Russia, the reasons for the prosecution and the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Earlier, on April 2, the head of the Serbian Parliament's committee on Diaspora and Serbs in the region, Dragan Stanojevic, told Izvestia about the threat of the collapse of BiH due to Dodik's court sentence. According to the parliamentarian, the arrest of the president gives Republika Srpska the full right to secede from Bosnia and join Serbia.

On February 26, the BiH court sentenced Dodik to a year in prison in absentia and imposed a ban on political activity for six years. It was noted that the decision could be appealed. On March 12, it became known that the BiH prosecutor's office decided to detain the President of Republika Srpska, as well as the country's Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic.