Two of the three members of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zeljko Komšić and Shefik Jaferovic, originally planned to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and personally state their claims about his statements. Jaferovich himself told about this, reports Kommersant on Tuesday, December 15.
According to the representative of the country's authorities, at first he, together with Komšić, intended to attend a meeting with the Russian minister in order to discuss in detail the judgments voiced by that about the policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, they later came to the conclusion that the refusal to meet would be a “stronger signal” for Russia.
Komšić, in turn, explained that the meaning of this signal was that the Bosnian authorities did not want to be “Russian pawns in the Balkans” and in any way participate in Moscow's games and showdowns with the EU countries or NATO members.
According to Kommersant, the main reason for the refusal of the members of the Bosnian Presidium was that Lavrov decided to support the resolution of the parliament of the Republika Srpska, which is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on military neutrality, despite the fact that the country's authorities had already made a decision on Euro-Atlantic integration. In addition, Komsic and Jaferovic criticized the Russian Foreign Minister for the fact that at his meeting with the third member of the Presidium, Milorad Dodik, the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not. In their opinion, all this testifies to Moscow's disrespect and denial of the Bosnian state institutions.
Earlier on December 15, it became known that Jaferovich and Komshich refused to meet with Lavrov, which was supposed to take place on the morning of December 15. They explained their decision by disagreeing with a number of statements by the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, including those regarding the Dayton Accords.
