LAVROV: THE WEST VIOLATES DAYTON PRINCIPLES, CAUSING THE BIGGEST POLITICAL CRISIS IN BiH

MOSCOW, September 9 /SRNA/ - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia considers foreign interference in BiH's internal affairs unacceptable and particularly condemns attempts to fabricate criminal charges in order to remove the lawfully and legitimately elected President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, who is inconvenient for the West but a friend of Russia.

Lavrov said that during today's meeting with Dodik in Moscow, they concluded that it is necessary to preserve all the principles of the Dayton Agreement, noting that the West continues to blatantly violate those principles. "Their destructive intentions are increasingly obvious, and they no longer even bother to hide their efforts to gain unchecked control over BiH, to deprive the Serbs of the rights guaranteed by Dayton, and to try to turn the country into a unitary state with a compliant government," Lavrov said at a Moscow press conference. According to him, this has led to the most severe political crisis in the last 30 years, dragging the entire Balkan region into destabilization. Lavrov stressed that these attempts at degradation are being carried out by German citizen Christian Schmidt, who presents himself as the High Representative in BiH without being appointed by the UN Security Council. He emphasized that Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks in BiH must resolve their processes and reach solutions through mutual agreement, adding that Russia, as one of the guarantors of the Dayton Agreement, will continue to support the accord and those forces committed to preserving its principles. Lavrov added that this issue will receive particular attention in October, when Russia assumes the presidency of the UN Security Council.