Dodik says he did not discuss secession with Vucic

BELGRADE - Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik denied on Friday the claims that he had intended to use Russian support during the annexation of Crimea to secede RS from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic had stopped him.

In a statement for the daily newspaper Danas from Belgrade, Dodik denied the claims made by Bodo Webber from the Berlin Council for Democratisation Policy and stressed that it was all "a spin."

The RS president says all the claims are part of a hysteria created in the west regarding Russia and Crimea, while forgetting that Crimea had conducted a completely legitimate referendum and decided to join Russia.

"RS has its own conceptt, of course, and will follow that direction based on the assessments we have, but our primary goal is to strengthen the autonomy of RS," Dodik explained.

Commenting on Webber's claims that he counted on Russian support in his efforts to secede RS, Dodik underscored tthat the talk of secession was not true, but that it was correct that he had always had good relations with Russia, adding that he would travel there next week to further improve those relations.

Dodik denied Webber's claim thatt Vucic had stopped him from trying to secede RS.

"That issue has not been on the table for our meetings, although the status of RS is a constant topic," he noted.

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