Powder keg in the Balkans

The Kremlin is destabilising Bosnia and Herzegovina – with Russia’s Serbian kinsfolk’s backing – as the Bosnian Serb leader of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, intensifies his goal of secession


Milorad Dodik: Hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree recognising Ukraine’s separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states


EU members
Republika Srpska
Bosnia and Herzegovina

RUSSIA 
BELARUS
UKRAINE
TURKEY


CROATIA
REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
Banja Luka
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Sarajevo
80km 50 miles
Brčko District (Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats)
Belgrade 
SERBIA
REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
MONTENEGRO
KOSOVO

1995 Dayton Agreement: Peace deal ends 1992-95 war, creating largely Serb-populated Republika Srpska and mainly Croat-Bosniak Bosnia and Herzegovina

34.9% Serbs support joining EU
43.8% Serbs oppose joining EU
21.3% Don’t know


Sources: Ipsos poll for Blic newspaper, Spiegel, RUSI
Picture: Getty Images 
© GRAPHIC NEWS