MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, told TASS in an interview that there can be no question that Crimea is a part of Russia.
"Disputing the ownership of Crimea by European countries is absolutely absurd. This issue was already settled; [Crimean] citizens made their choice," Dodik said. "And yet this issue is still being talked about in Europe <…>. Even the Trump administration doesn’t consider this a matter for dispute," he emphasized.
Commenting on the European Union as a bloc, Dodik questioned its powers. "Germany, for one, has lost its economic might, as it dropped to the 10th-largest economy in the world, when it was 4th only a short time ago," he argued, adding that France was no longer the economic powerhouse it used to be either. "The European ideal is a lie, as we say in Republika Srpska," the Bosnian Serb leader concluded.