Dodik and Minic in Moscow: Putin Meeting Set for Tuesday

The delegation of Republika Srpska, led by Prime Minister Savo Minic and SNSD leader Milorad Dodik, arrived in Moscow overnight ahead of Monday, September 28. According to Klix.ba, Dodik’s wife traveled with him. The visit spans several days and comes just before general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at a time when Banja Luka continues to build its relationship with Moscow independent of official Sarajevo.

On the first day of the visit, today, the delegation has a packed schedule in the Russian capital. According to Nezavisne novine, the order of events is as follows:

• at 2 PM Moscow time (1 PM Central European time), a visit to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and talks with the university’s leadership
• at 2:40 PM, a lecture Dodik is giving to MGIMO students titled “The Future of Cooperation Between Russia and Republika Srpska in the New System of International Relations”
• at 6:30 PM, a meeting with representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The central event of the visit is the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, September 29, starting at 3 PM Moscow time. Both Nezavisne novine and Aloonline.ba confirm that time, while Tanjug only announces the meeting with Putin as the high point of the visit, without giving its own schedule.

Dodik announced the visit in a post on X, where he said the trip to Moscow carries broader significance for Republika Srpska:

“Continued cooperation with Russia is of great importance for the political, economic and every other kind of stability and development of Republika Srpska.”

Tanjug also reports that Dodik added the visit to Moscow “once again confirms the strength and brotherly ties between Republika Srpska and the Russian Federation.”

The schedule itself, a lecture at MGIMO before the meeting with the Academy of Sciences and only then a reception with the Russian president, suggests that Moscow is treating this visit as more than routine diplomatic courtesy. Lecturing students at one of Russia’s most influential schools of diplomacy is a gesture Russia typically reserves for interlocutors it wants to deepen ties with over the long term, not just for a one-time show of support.

For Belgrade and the region, the visit matters for two reasons. The first is timing: it comes just ahead of general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so every photograph of Dodik in the Kremlin becomes part of the campaign in Republika Srpska. The second is foreign policy: while Brussels keeps pushing for a single European path for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, Banja Luka is using this visit to show, once again, that its main support outside the region comes from Moscow rather than Brussels.

None of the available sources, as of publication, give a concrete agenda for the talks with Putin or the location of the meeting in the Russian capital. The content of the meeting and any agreements reached will only be known after Tuesday.