Counterspin: Stoilković and Dodik with love from Skopje only for Belgrade and Moscow

The initial idea of celebrating Saint Sava as the spiritual patron of the Serbian community in North Macedonia and promoting peace and understanding, turned into a “carriage” of harmful anti-Western and pro-Russian narratives (as in the case of Dodik’s stances) and the excessive glorification of Vučić in Ivan Stoilković’s stances.

 

Author: Stojan Sinadinov

 

On the celebration of Saint Sava, the national holiday of the Serbian community in N. Macedonia, which was held with the Solemn Saint Sava Academy at the Macedonian National Theatre in Skopje, among those in attendance were Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Montenegro, Andrija Mandić, President of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, Serbian Minister of Defense Bratislav Gašić, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porfirij, Archbishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church Stefan, the Serbian Minister of Culture, Nikola Selaković and so on.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Inter-Community Relations Ivan Stoilković and President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik attracted particular attention due to the views expressed in their addresses.

Spin: Mr. Gašić, allow me on behalf of the Serbs in Macedonia to convey full and such tremendous support to President Vučić, to continue to bring peace and stability to the region. The peace and stability of Serbia, is in some way, a prerequisite for the economic development of Serbia, and as such economic development, it is also suitable for all countries in the region and that policy must continue further, said Deputy Prime Minister Stoilković.

[Source: SDK At the celebration of Saint Sava in MNT, Skopje, Dodik attacked the US, NATO, and the EU, Mickoski did not expect he would take advantage of the event – date: 28.01.2025]

 

The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, on the other hand, stressed that Republika Srpska is a state of Serbs–in the present day, they have two states in the Balkans, Republika Srpska and Serbia. He said the Serbs living in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not commit genocide against the Muslim population, as claimed by former US President Joe Biden, adding that Serbia’s entry into the European Union is a strategic goal, but the EU is conducting a hypocritical policy and proof of that lies in the example of Macedonia, as well as that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leadership did everything in order to defend Russian national state interests at the right moment and at the right time:

Spin: Unfortunately, there are casualties and those who have lost their lives, but Russia should not have allowed NATO to put itself in a position from which Moscow and other parts could be threatened, especially after what Zbigniew Brzezinski said, to break up into a dozen separate states to control Russian resources, said Dodik at the Solemn Saint Sava Academy.

[Source: Lokalno Dodik: Serbia and Republika Srpska will not join NATO – date: 28.01.2025]

 

 

Counterspin: Ivan Stoilković’s “wholehearted and overwhelming support” for Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is unfitting for at least two reasons. It’s impossible for Stoilković, leader of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia, not to see the perception of Vučić as an autocratic ruler in Serbia against whom students and citizens have been protesting for months, while Vučić blames those demonstrations on media outlets and activists from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo. Ever since 2017, the infamous “Macedonian scenario” has not been removed from the list of “destroyers” of his rule.

 

Calls for dialogue, beatings, resignation of the prime minister–all this happened in just 16 hours of the Serbian political thriller. It seems that Vučević’s “political head” cannot satisfy the appetite of “half of Serbia,” assesses Deutsche Welle.

 

This is just an illustration of the general assessment of the media outlets from the democratic world– Serbia in the present day, when Vučić “sacrificed” the prime minister to buy time under the increasing pressure of demonstrations demanding accountability and not just formal resignations–is the least of all to “continue to bring peace and stability to the region”, as Stoilković wishes. Just one day after the Solemn Saint Sava Academy (28.01.2025) Vučić vaguely announced a period of a dozen days in which he will decide whether his current parliamentary majority will form a new government or call elections.

If the traditional conflict over Serbia’s attitude towards Kosovo is added to this situation (which has often been used for manipulations in favor of maintaining power), then Serbia’s peace and stability will benefit the entire region. But for the time being, only the anniversaries of smaller armed incidents, like the one in Banjska in September 2024, are being counted–hoping it does not get worse.

Then, Stoilković as a deputy prime minister in the Macedonian government, in charge of relations between communities, by welcoming Dodik in his cabinet, further angered the communities themselves, first the Bosniaks, but also the coalition partners with whom he shares power.

Dodik visited Macedonia in order to “provide help” in the European integration process of the country, as he had previously “helped” Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is a huge blow to the reputation of our country in the international community, which raises the question of whether this government nurtures European values at all, in the context of respect for human rights and freedoms and civilizational values established by international agreements–on the basis of which certain individuals have been convicted, and with whose glorification and hate speech, Dodik has established and still maintains his political career! This seriously calls into question our strategy for European integration and international relations, the Bosniak Democratic Union says.

This association also filed a criminal complaint against Stoilković last year for his statement following the Foreign Ministry’s decision to support a United Nations Resolution declaring July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide, because he called the genocide “necrophiliac Disneyland”.

Milorad Dodik, the longest-serving ruler in any of the Balkan states (in this case the Bosnia and Herzegovina entity Republika Srpska), with his robust anti-NATO and anti-EU attitude, once again confirms his position as one of Putin’s main proxy players in the Balkans.

 

 

As if taken from a playbook on manipulation and disinformation, Dodik repeats his well-known anti-NATO and anti-Western views in which by the principle of the ‘reverse mirror’ it turns out that Russia was threatened and had to defend itself in such a way that it would carry out a military invasion of Ukraine. This was said at an event organized in North Macedonia which is one of the youngest members of NATO, while more recently Radmila Shekerinska has been elected as the Deputy Secretary General of the Alliance.

Both Stoilković and Dodik have been visiting Russia after its military invasion of Ukraine for various reasons–Stoilković even attended the security forum in Moscow, unlike democratic and pro-Western-oriented politicians from the region, whose credibility dictates that it is essential to visit Kyiv in support for Ukraine who is defending itself from that same military invasion.

Therefore, the initial idea of ​​celebrating Saint Sava as a spiritual patron of the Serb community in North Macedonia and promoting peace and understanding turned into an “import” of anti-Western and pro-Russian narratives (as in the case of Dodik’s views) and the inappropriate glorification of Vučić in Stoilković’s address.

 

 

All comments and remarks regarding this and other Vistinomer articles, correction and clarification requests as well as suggestions for fact-checking politicians’ statements and political parties’ promises can be submitted by using this form