BELGRADE, August 4. /TASS/. Serbia will ignore Washington’s sanctions against the leaders of the Republic of Srpska and will continue communication with them, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday at a joint news conference with President of the Republic of Srpska (one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina,) Milorad Dodik.

"When the strongest country in the world imposes sanctions on Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, seeking to criminalize and blame them for everything that is going on in Kosovo and Metohija <…> when sanctions are imposed on the chief of the Serbian Security and Information Agency [Aleksandar Vulin], i.e. on the Serbian special service, Dodik was also sanctioned, naturally, this is bad news for our people, wherever they live, and we must reflect on this and find a rational and pragmatic solution," he said.

"Serbia thinks that the policy of sanctions always produces a negative effect. For nearly a decade, we were under sanctions and consider the sanctions against the leadership of the Republic of Srpska as inappropriate and undeserved and, hence, regardless of the fact that we are a small country, a small people compared to such a large and mighty power as the United States, we have no choice. Serbia will treat the blacklisted persons as though there are no sanctions. We will never agree with those who imposed sanctions against representatives of our people," Vucic stressed, adding that this will inevitably have negative consequences for Belgrade.

In late July, Washington imposed sanctions against four officials of the Republic of Srpska: speaker of the National Assembly Nenad Stevandic, Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, Justice Minister Milos Bukejlovic and Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency Zeljka Cvijanovic.

Chief of the Serbian Security and Information Agency Aleksandar Vulin was also blacklisted by Washington for being involved in what it claimed to be corrupt deals facilitating the spread of Russia’s influence in the region.

Following this, Vucic said that he was faced with a choice: either Serbia’s sanctions against Russia or US sanctions against Vulin.