SARAJEVO: Bosnia’s Serb statelet, whose President Milorad Dodik is defying a ban on him holding office, will stage a referendum on October 25 on the federal court verdict against him.
Lawmakers in the Republika Srpska’s (RS) regional parliament late Friday voted for the referendum as the political crisis around Dodik worsened, with his prime minister resigning on Monday, triggering a government reshuffle.
Dodik, 66, was convicted in February by a Bosnian federal court of undermining the fragile functioning of the Balkan country by flouting decisions by the international envoy enforcing a peace deal that ended Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war.
Dodik avoided a one-year prison sentence by paying a 19,000-euro ($22,000) fine, but an appeals court upheld a ruling that he be removed from the RS presidency and banned from political office for six years.
The regional leader, who has been in his post for seven years, has vowed to block elections in the Republika Srpska and to hold a series of referendums.
The one voted for late Friday was the first of those.
The question to appear on the October ballot, Bosnian Serb lawmakers decided, was: “Do you accept the decisions of the unelected foreigner (international envoy Christian Schmidt) and the unconstitutional verdict of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Court against the President of the RS, as well as the decision of the Bosnian Electoral Commission to revoke the mandate of the President of the RS, Milorad Dodik?“
Of the 65 lawmakers present in the RS parliament, 50 voted in favor. Opposition lawmakers in the chamber refused to cast a vote.
“I won’t get in your way... but you’re walking on a minefield,” warned one opposition member of parliament, Nebojsa Vukanovic, a fierce critic of Dodik.
Dodik has said he expects the Serbian population of the Republika Srpska to massively vote “no” to the referendum question. He has also threatened to hold a later referendum on independence for the Serbian entity.
The nationalist Bosnian Serb leader has been in power since 2006. He blames Schmidt, a former German minister who has been the international envoy for Bosnia since 2021, for his ordered ouster.
The RS parliament late Friday also adopted a number of “conclusions,” including one rejecting Schmidt’s authority, another demanding that Dodik continue as the statelet’s president, and one rejecting elections to choose a successor to him.
With the federal ban on Dodik holding office, Bosnia’s electoral commission is expected to call early elections for the RS presidency, which must be held within 90 days.
The outgoing RS prime minister, Radovan Viskovic, did not explain why he was resigning, in a Monday press conference held in the regional capital, Banja Luka.
He stated only that a new government would be formed, and that “I leave my successor a stable Republika Srpska.”
Viskovic was accused along with Dodik of undermining Bosnia’s constitutional order after the RS parliament voted to bar federal police and the judiciary from operating in the Serb entity.
Both have also been sanctioned by the United States for threatening the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement and undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina’s sovereignty.
Bosnia has been split between Serbian and Bosnian-Croat political units since the end of the 1990s war, in which tens of thousands died. The country is held together by weak central institutions.
Bosnia’s Serb statelet calls referendum on verdict against leader
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Bosnia’s Serb statelet calls referendum on verdict against leader
- Bosnia’s Serb statelet, whose President Milorad Dodik is defying a ban on him holding office, will stage a referendum on October 25 on the federal court verdict against him
Ukraine drops NATO goal as Trump envoy sees progress in peace talks
- The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution
BERLIN/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO military alliance as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia, with negotiations set to continue on Monday.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Zelensky in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, though full details were not divulged.
Zelensky’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said the president would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed. Officials, Lytvyn said, were considering the draft documents.
“They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning,” Lytvyn told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s goal to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees.
The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.
“Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
The talks were hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who a source said had made brief remarks before leaving the two sides to negotiate. Other European leaders are also due in Germany for talks on Monday.
“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” Zelensky said in answer to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelensky said.
“And it is already a compromise on our part,” he said, adding the security guarantees should be legally binding.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded Ukraine officially renounce its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the about 10 percent of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said Ukraine must be a neutral country and no NATO troops can be stationed in Ukraine.
Russian sources said earlier this year that Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the US-led NATO alliance eastwards — shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
Sending Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Under pressure from Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow’s demands, Zelensky accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities and Ukraine’s power and water supplies.
A ceasefire along the current front lines would be a fair option, he added.
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was a “good sign” Trump had sent his envoys while fielding questions in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster on the suitability of Witkoff and Kushner, two businessmen, as negotiators.
“It’s certainly anything but an ideal setup for such negotiations. That much is clear. But as they say, you can only dance with the people on the dance floor,” Pistorius said.
On the issue of Ukraine’s offer to give up its NATO aspirations in exchange for security guarantees, Pistorius said Ukraine had bitter prior experience of relying on security assurances. Kyiv had in 1994 agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for territorial guarantees from the US, Russia and Britain.
“Therefore, it remains to be seen to what extent this statement Zelensky has now made will actually hold true, and what preconditions must be met,” Pistorius said.
“This concerns territorial issues, commitments from Russia and others,” he said, adding mere security guarantees, especially without significant US involvement, “wouldn’t be worth much.”
Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.
European allies have described this as a “critical moment” that could shape Ukraine’s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv’s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.
