Bosnia Must Counter Russia’s Cultivation of Far-Right Extremists

Russia engages a range of actors and tools across the Western Balkans, ranging from official diplomats to friendly oligarchs, and from informal radical groups to leading media outlets.

This effort is aided by common languages among several former Yugoslav states, which makes it easier to generate regional support for far-right groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Such groups have increased their visibility in the Balkans by demonstrating loyalty to those who advocate the secession of Bosnia's Serb-majority entity, Republika Srpska.

BIRN recently published a story about a uniformed pro-Russian group, Sveti Georgije Loncari ["St George of Loncari"], whose members glorify convicted war criminals while posing in Bosnia as a humanitarian organization.

This group is linked to a radical right counterpart in Serbia, Srbska Cast, ["Serbian honour"] which also operates under the guise of humanitarian aid. Both organizations, and other similar groups, enjoy Russian support.

Bosnian Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic (right) and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Sarajevo in December 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

In January 2021 Srbska Cast, which is headquartered in the southern Serbian city of Nis but has a branch in the Republika Srpska, participated in the Republika Srpska Day parade. The parade marks the date in 1992 when Bosnian Serb leaders declared their own state and sparked a genocidal war whose commemoration was declared unconstitutional in 2015 by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Russian support for groups like Srbska Cast is multi-faceted and ranges from efforts to reinforce far-right narratives online to military training. According to researchers, the Russian Humanitarian Centre in...