MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. The European Union and the United States’ aggressive approach to the Republic of Srpska leaves it no other choice but to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a Russian expert told TASS.

Commenting on President Milorad Dodik’s statement that the government of the Republic of Srpska plans to draft a document on peacefully separating from Bosnia-Herzegovina within 30 days, Elena Guskova of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences noted that this was a "quite concrete" statement.

"All this negativity poured out onto the Republic of Srpska literally in the past six months. The High Representative [for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt] was appointed but not approved by the UN Security Council, which means that he is illegitimate. This led to a feud between the high representative from Germany and Dodik," she said. "As a result, the high representative continues his activity, despite his not being approved by the Security Council. Moreover, they have begun to threaten Dodik with arrest and even murder. The United States has imposed sanctions on Dodik. Naturally, the republic has little chance to reverse the situation."

"However, announcing the path to independence is a proclamation that requires lengthy deliberation. This will take a long time," she noted, adding that amid the sanctions against Dodik, several assassination attempts and an attempted color revolution in the republic, the West will not be happy about the Republic of Srpska’s potential separation.

According to Dodik, the draft document on the peaceful secession from Bosnia and Herzegovina will envisage that the current economic model stay in place, being adjusted as needed over the next several years. He linked this initiative with the Sarajevo-initiated UN General Assembly resolution on the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, which he slammed as illegal. He also said that the world community is turning a blind eye to the massacre of around 3,500 ethnic Serbs near Srebrenica during the armed conflict in the early 1990s.