MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax) - Moscow insists on ending the prosecution of Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
"As one of the guarantors of the Dayton Agreement, we insist on immediately ending the politically-motivated prosecution of Republika Srpska's leader, bringing the situation back into the legal framework, resuming dialogue between the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and eliminating dangerous and destructive interference from Western forces," Zakharova said at a press briefing on Thursday.
"This is really a travesty of justice," Zakharova said. "This man was legitimately elected to represent the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all of this is happening amid and in the context of a broad-ranging political campaign against Republika Srpska," she said.
"This is a global political onslaught on the ethno-cultural entity and people represented by Milorad Dodik," she said.
"We regret that the Bosnian justice system has been employed to settle scores with political opponents," Zakharova said. "Cancelling Republika Srpska will have most serious consequences for peace, security, and stability in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Balkans as a whole," she said.
"Any attempts to make up stories about them [Dodik and his associates] and their links to our country are debunked solely [...] by their true patriotism toward their own compatriots," she said.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecution service on Wednesday forwarded a warrant to the Interior Ministry of Republika Srpska to detain its President Dodik, Prime Minister Radovan Viscovic, and parliamentary speaker Nenad Stevandic on charges of undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina's constitutional system.