Balkan Press Review

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, is Republika Srpska really on the road to secession?

A press review presented in partnership with Le Courrier des Balkans.

The leader of the Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, visiting Moscow for a meeting with Vladimir Putin, May 23, 2023. © Alexey Filippov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool via AP

Text by: Jean-Arnault Dérens Follow | Balkan Mail Follow

Advertising

Read more

Since the end of June, the Republika Srpska has not recognised decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Is the country on the verge of implosion? Has Milorad Dodik crossed a red line? Is he really determined to embark on the path of secession? Should NATO deploy forces in Brčko territory? Cross-analysis.

The European "migration management" strategy aims to increase voluntary or forced returns to countries of origin from the Balkans, which still represent the main route to the Union for exiles. Bosnia and Herzegovina, still a de facto international protectorate, has been experimenting with a pilot project since 2022, with the first expulsions to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Morocco. It is required to implement policies decided elsewhere, by the EU and opaque subcontracting organisations such as the ICMPD.

Greece is suffocating under record temperatures and huge fires are ravaging the surroundings of Athens. Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotákis has returned from Brussels, but firefighting resources are dramatically lacking. Police water cannons were even mobilized.

While very violent storms have ravaged Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, it is clear that all Balkan countries are particularly exposed to the consequences of climate change.

This does not prevent the pursuit of highly contested extractivist projects. For example, a giant gold and copper mine will open in the Ogražden massif in southeastern North Macedonia. The government has decided to merge the concessions granted to the Canadian company Euromax Resources, in which a businessman close to the BDI has just invested. Citizens are mobilizing.

Oleg Horjan was found stabbed to death in his home on 17 July. Leader of the local Communist Party and opponent of the separatist regime in Transnistria, he was one of the few people who dared to fight for fundamental freedoms in this small pro-Russian separatist entity in Moldova. He had spent four years in prison for organizing a rally in Tiraspol.

NewsletterReceive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Share:

Read on on the same topics:

  • Press review
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Greece
  • Slovenia
  • Climate change
  • Croatia
  • Serbia
  • North Macedonia
  • Moldova