There was still a year for the death of the marshal titus and the end of his regime when the young Bosnian Sifet Podzic he entered the Sarajevo Military Academy to pursue a career in the ranks of a Yugoslav army. Forty-three years and a breakup war later, the same man, turned lieutenant general and Minister of the Armed Forces of Bosnia Herzegovinais the main guest of the NATO allies at the dinner held this Wednesday by the alliance’s defense ministers.
This is an issue that has gone unnoticed among the big headlines at the Madrid summit. Of the Balkans Not much has been said in the Strategic Concept or in the Political Communiqué, but there has been, and a lot, about two actors present in the area, Russia and China, and their weapons of destabilization. At the most secret level of the defense ministers, much has been said about the state of Bosnia Herzegovina, artificial but peaceful and well placed between Serbia and Croatia, the product of the Dayton agreements that put an end to the yugoslav massacre and partner of NATO, at this moment a delicate strategic pivot, a Vladimir Putin blowing domino while the West punishes him for the aggression against Ukraine.
“The Balkans need stabilityand in this stability the role of Serbia is fundamental, but above all that of Bosnia”, a NATO managerial source tells this newspaper to explain why Podzic is the center of the dinner that the Defense Minister has convened at Ifema , Margaret Oakswith his colleagues.
Dodik the pawn
Since January, before the invasion of Ukraine, NATO detected a rise of nationalist agitation in the Bosnian Serb zone. An erosive rain in the style that the Alliance fears will soak the Russian minorities in the Baltic republics. The agent of this destabilization is called Milorad Dodikis a personal friend of Putin and ideological heir to Radovan Karadzikthe radical Bosnian Serb leader who encouraged bloodshed in the Yugoslavian war.
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At the head of the Serb sector in Bosnia, in the territories he controls of the unstable multi-ethnic republic, Dodik has appropriated – without agreement with the central government – the powers of Justice and Security. Also from the Treasury since January 2021. For New Russia, Putin’s nationalist party, Dodik is a outstanding student in Pan-Slavism which declares Serbia and the Serbs scattered throughout the area as brothers of the Russians and vvictims of an alleged Slavophobia. And for China, explains the NATO source consulted, Dodik and Slavic victimhood is an opportunity to erode European cohesion.
At the defense ministers’ dinner in Madrid, not only Germany has reason to sit at the table worried; also Minister Robles: if the Bosnian domino continues to wobble, if NATO needs support in the Balkans to block Putin’s way, it is likely that Turkey supports Kosovo claim to enter the Alliance. Spain would then have to vote if she accepts as an ally a country that she does not recognize.