Bosnia supports EU sanctions on Russia, says foreign minister

SARAJEVO

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s foreign minister said the country “fully supports the EU’s sanctions policy on Russia and Belarus,” but added that implementation remains blocked by the main Bosnian Serb party, SNSD, despite recent legal action against its leader, Milorad Dodik.

Elmedin Konakovic made the remarks to Anadolu on the sidelines of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region conference in Sarajevo on Wednesday, saying the stance “won’t change even with the suspension of Dodik.”

Asked whether talk of Republika Srpska – the Serb-majority entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina – seceding from the country was realistic, Konakovic said his government “would not allow the bones of the dead of Srebrenica to be detached from the homeland,” invoking the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces, a crime recognized as genocide by international courts.

Dodik, the former Republika Srpska president and head of the SNSD party, was convicted this year for defying Bosnia’s international overseer and given a one-year prison sentence and a six-year ban from holding office, escalating the country’s worst political crisis in years.

In parallel, the RS assembly moved to strip national police and judicial bodies of authority on its territory. Bosnia’s top court has since suspended those separatist laws pending review.

EU officials warned any attempt to dismantle Bosnia’s constitutional order would be “unacceptable,” and EU peacekeepers have been reinforced.

Under Bosnia’s postwar Dayton system – which divides power between Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs under a rotating presidency – foreign policy decisions require consensus across the state’s institutions. The SNSD has used that veto to block Bosnia from aligning with EU sanctions on Russia, even as Sarajevo has supported key UN resolutions condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Bosnian Serbs, who make up roughly a third of the population, maintain their own institutions within Bosnia’s state framework and exercise influence through veto powers.

Republika Srpska’s leaders, including Dodik, have long cultivated close ties with Moscow. The Kremlin has consistently backed Dodik politically, while EU and US officials accuse him of undermining the Dayton accords and fueling secessionist rhetoric.

“Dodik made seven trips in the last year to meet (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, and that indicates where his loyalties lie,” Konakovic said.

Belgrade remains an EU candidate country but has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia, citing energy dependence and domestic political pressures.