Serbian Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik said today that he will meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov in Belgrade on Tuesday, June 7. Ten days after that, on June 17, Dodik will meet with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.

“We are being pressured on all sides to join the sanctions against Russia and display some sort of enthusiasm by doing so. We have decided not to do that, because we know that this disaster shall pass and then we will have to cooperate and maintain good relations with Russia,” said Dodik to journalists in Šipovo.

He estimated that the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina today is more divided than ever, emphasizing that he was not intending to deteriorate relations with the West, even though pressure to impose sanctions on Russia is looming from that side on a daily basis.

Dodik believes that his meetings with Lavrov and Putin will provoke certain reactions in the West.

“It is my job to ensure stability for us. The Republic of Srpska is stable today, which again goes to show that it knows how to find an answer and remain stable in spite of strong pressure from the inside and from the outside,” said Dodik.

Dodik was invited to participate at the 25th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, where he is set to meet with Putin.

The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs will be visiting Serbia on June 6 and 7, where he will meet with the President Aleksandar Vučić and other dignitaries.