Bosnia Braces for Dodik's Inauguration to Presidency

Before taking up his new post as Serbian member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Milorad Dodik announced on Wednesday that he will take an oath before the assembly of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, the day before is sworn in.

"This is one example, among many others, that prove that Dodik will try to put a focus on rather unimportant things, but which will in general effect ethnic relations in the presidency and in the country as well," Zlatiborka Popov Momcinovic, a Sarajevo-based political analyst, told BIRN.

The three members of the collective head of state will now be Dodik, outgoing President of Republika Srpska and head of its governing Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, Sefik Dzaferovic, from the main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and Zeljko Komsic, from the Democratic Front.

Dodik, well known for his close ties to Russia and for championing Republika Srpska's independence, already said that serving the Serbian people's interests would be his priority.

"I don't care who the other two representatives in the presidency are. I am going there, to this presidency, to work above all and only for the interests of Serbs," Dodik said in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of Republika Srpska, when the first election results were published on October 7.

"This announcement is a sign that we can expect constant tension, and for sure it will be hard to expect this Presidency to agree on many things, although the presidency's work is based on consensus," Popov Momcinovic commented.

Popov Momcinovic recalled that the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Dodik in January 2017 for obstructing the 1995 peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995, saying he had defied...