Bosnian Serb strongman says he will run for presidency

BELGRADE: Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who regularly threatens secession, said Friday he would run for Bosnia's tripartite presidency later this year despite believing it was a "failed" state.
Since the Dayton peace accords ended Bosnia's devastating 1990s conflict, the Balkan country has consisted of two semi-independent entities: the Serbs' Republika Srpska (RS) and a Muslim-Croat federation.
Each has its own government but they share weak central institutions, including the joint presidency comprising members from the three main ethnic groups: a Bosnian Muslim, a Croat and a Serb.
"I will definitely be a candidate for membership of the presidency," Dodik, 58, told Serbian state-run RTS television but repeated his belief that Bosnia was a "failed country".
Dodik is currently RS president and the most powerful politician in the entity. Once a darling of the West and perceived as a moderate, he now shows more sympathies for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dodik regularly criticises Bosnia's central institutions and threatens to hold a referendum on RS independence.
In January he said the RS was moving towards the "highest possible" level of independence, which he described as a "legitimate political goal".
Dodik rarely visits Bosnia's capital Sarajevo, now a predominantly Muslim city, where the presidency has its seat.
About one half of Bosnia's 3.5 million citizens are Muslim Bosniaks, a third are Orthodox Serbs, and Catholic Croats make up some 15%.
The 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war claimed around 100,000 lives. — AFP