The joint visit of Vučić and Dodik to Prijedor under the blessing of Patriarch Profirije is an insult to the victims of the 1992-1995 war, but also a provocation to the U.S.

Located in the western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prijedor is the second town after Srebrenica where massacres and genocide were committed by Serb military and paramilitary forces during the 1992-1995 war against Bosniaks. The International Criminal Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had sentenced six Serb officials to over 160 years in prison for crimes committed in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while local courts convicted seven other criminals. This city has nothing to do with Operation Storm, which took place in Croatia in 1995. Nevertheless, and insulting everything related to this town, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, together with the President of Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, and in the presence of the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Profirije, tried from Prijedor to remember the “Storm” operation, which took place in Croatia. This was obviously not only a provocation, but also an insult to history and the memory of those who were massacred by the criminal hands of the Serbian military and paramilitaries.

The decision of the head of state of Serbia, RS entity and the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church to mark the anniversary of Operation Storm by the authorities of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Prijedor was considered a provocation and insult to the victims of serbian crimes in this city. The provocation of the President of Serbia and the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church is directed not only against the victims of the war, but also against the United States of America, which imposed sanctions against the head of the RS unit, Milorad Dodik. Without reservation and very openly, President Aleksandër Vučić had told Serbia’s public television after the meeting with Milorad Dodik that he and Serbia would not give up their support for the leaders of Republika Srpska despite the sanctions.

Milorad Dodik and his SNSD party have begun the latest period of confrontation with all those who think differently and criticise the government. The criminalisation of defamation and the imposition of heavy penalties for it, through a poorly drafted law passed by the RS People’s Assembly, is the final stage in which freedom of the press is stifled. The very censorship of the media, their control as an act of dictatorship by a power takes on its own form even in the face of the sanctions imposed by the US on the Serbian leaders of the entity. Sanctions are not seen as a concern by Milorad Dodik. Fighting the media and shutting them down with all sorts of methods is his priority.

It is interesting to note that Milorad Dodik himself is a proponent of defamation and has never been punished for it. As a connoisseur and practitioner of defamation, it will be interesting to see his confrontation with the law passed by his party in the Assembly of the entity. This is not all that the head of the RS entity, Milorad Dodik, is up to. He has started preparations and procedures to declare enemies of the Republika Srpska and to prosecute them in court. Putinization of Dodik is not a surprise, when it is known that the head of RS has honored Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following the example of Russia’s Wagner Group, Milorad Dodik has brought private insurance companies under control, even buying them up and trying to use them as much as possible as espionage and security organizations or structures. In the “Elektroprivreda” are engaged more than 50 IT experts working in the field of propaganda in the space of social networks. Controls all fan groups in Republika Srpska, monitors and tracks the opposition and critical voices to the maximum. Also by spying on the M:Tel telephone network. All this motivated in the spirit of Serbian nationalism.

Although the sanctions imposed by the United States are fully in line with the destructive and Putinist activities of Milorad Dodik, President Aleksandar Vučić still shamelessly finds the strength and courage to support Dodik and presents the will and sanctions against them as the West’s enmity towards the Serbian people.

As a reminder, apart from the head of the RS Milorad Dodik, the United States imposed sanctions on the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zeljka Cvijanovic, and other senior officials of the Republika Srpska for undermining the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995. The Speaker of the Parliament of the Republika Srpska, Nenad Stevandic, the Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Viskovic, and the Minister of Justice of the Republika Srpska, Milos Bukejlovic, have also been included on the US Treasury Department sanctions list./TheGeopost