After the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik honored Russian President Vladimir Putin at the beginning of the year, now the reverse has happened.
As reported by RTRS, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree awarding the Order of Alexander Nevsky to Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik.
"For a great contribution to the development of cooperation between Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, strengthening the partnership with Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik - the president of Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina - will be awarded the Order of Aleksandar Nevsky," states the decree of the Russian head of state.
In January 2019, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, received the Order of Alexander Nevsky, "for his great personal contribution to the development of multilateral cooperation with the Russian Federation".
Although Russia has been almost completely isolated since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, this did not prevent Dodik from visiting Moscow. In May, he personally met with Putin in the Kremlin and on that occasion presented the medal of Republika Srpska, which was awarded to him on January 9.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Dodik has openly supported Russian aggression, and during his last stay in Moscow he justified it by claiming that Russia must defend itself against "Ukrainian Nazism".
Reactions to the last meeting between Dodik and Putin came from both Washington and Brussels.
Commenting on the meeting between Dodik and Putin, the US State Department stated that "no government, at any level, should at this moment expand cooperation with Russia, while that country is carrying out aggression against Ukraine."
A spokesperson for the State Department told Voice of America that Dodik's decision to meet with Putin, "while at the same time Russia is openly violating the foundations and laws of the international order."
Vedran Džihić, a senior researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Politics, calls Dodik's visit "another symbolic slap in the face of the West."
"Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, no one, at least not member countries or candidates for membership in the European Union (EU), has visited Moscow," Džihić says for BBC in Serbian.
One of the common denominators between Putin and Dodik is that they are under sanctions from Western countries.
BG/FoNet/BBC
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
