VIENNA, May 2. /TASS/. The international community should quickly disband the office of the illegitimate UN High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Maxim Buyakevich said at the organization's Permanent Council meeting.

"The so-called High Representative, illegally appointed bypassing the UN Security Council and without taking into account the opinion of Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens, remains an obvious destabilizing element. At least one entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina does not recognize Christian Schmidt as the High Representative, as well as a number of UN Security Council member states. <...> The office of the High Representative has been a source of nothing but problems for some time now, undermining the entire Dayton framework. We must lead the way to the swift dismantling of this harmful mechanism of foreign tutelage over a sovereign Balkan nation," the diplomat said.

According to Buyakevich, the basis for sustainable inter-ethnic mediation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is "an equitable intra-Bosnian dialogue with no outside interference." The Russian diplomat emphasized that only this kind of dialogue can guarantee a peaceful resolution of the existing strife in the country.

According to the constitution proposed in the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Agreement), the country consists of two entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (about 51% of the territory) and Republika Srpska (about 49% of the territory), as well as the Brcko District. Three main peoples are proportionally represented in the government: Bosniaks (Slavs who converted to Islam), Serbs (Orthodox), and Croats (Catholics).

The country is de facto governed by a high representative of the international community (a post created under the Dayton Agreement), who is appointed by the steering committee of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Peace Implementation Council after approval by the UN Security Council. However, in May 2021, the ambassadors of the steering committee countries decided to appoint Christian Schmidt as the new high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina without getting UNSC approval. The Republika Srpska leadership does not recognize Schmidt's legitimacy.