Bosnian Serb Opposition Demand Dodik’s Resignation Over Icon Scandal

A three-centuries-old gilded icon, presented to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by Milorad Dodik, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be returned amid a row over its origins, the Russian Foreign Ministry told the Russian media.

"The icon will be returned for further clarification of its history through Interpol," Russia Today reported, referring to the RIA agency.

While neither Dodik nor his Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, has commented on the icon case so far, opposition political leaders in RS are vocal in demanding that Dodik should resign over the affair.

"The only right move is to resign, step down from a position he obviously does not know how to perform and save us from further embarrassment," Branislav Borenovic, leader of the Party of Democratic Progress, PDP, told the Bosnian media over the weekend.

"A series of gaffes, embarrassments and abuses of position have reached a climax with a scandal that he prepared with a gift for the Russian Foreigh Minister Sergey Lavrov," Borenovic said, adding that Dodik forgot that he did not represent himself but the mainly Serbian entity in Bosnia, Republika Srpska.

The Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, the largest opposition party in the RS, said that all those involved in the case must step down.

"Everything is possible with us, to be humiliated to that level and for nothing to happen. I hope this time it will not be possible to pass like that because there is a stain on our entire nation," SDS leader Mirko Sarovic told the media on Sunday.

Last Thursday, Ukraine's embassy in Sarajevo asked Bosnia's Foreign Ministry for detailed information about the icon that it says is part of Ukrainian heritage. Dodik presented to to Russia...