Bosnia and Herzegovina

Main article: Countries of the world

Federated Device

Bosnia and Herzegovina is legally a unitary decentralized state. However, for 2020, the Bosnian central government is so weak that Bosnia and Herzegovina is often characterized not even as a federation, but as a confederation. In fact, it consists of three independent entities.

Approximately 51% of the territory is occupied by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, inhabited mainly by Bosnian Muslims.

48% of the country's territory is occupied by the Republika Srpska, controlled by Bosnian Serbs.

About 1% of the total area of ​ ​ the state is Brchko County, which is actually under international administration.

Russia supports Serbs

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised support to Bosnian Serbs in disputes with other factions over the division of power, which the Western allies insist on, said in December 2021 a member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik.

"Russia has a number of objections to the neglect of the Dayton peace agreement," which ended the conflict in Bosnia in 1995, he said.

Dodik has repeatedly threatened that his Serb-ruled part of Bosnia, one of two autonomous entities created under the pact, would secede if foreign envoys overseeing the semi-divided state continued to centralize power.

According to Dodik, Putin reiterated his support for "joint economic projects" in Republika Srpska, including a new gas pipeline, further fuel supplies and a planned solar power plant, as well as maintaining the existing gas price.

Britain backs Muslims

Liz Truss, as British Foreign Secretary, turned British foreign policy towards the Balkans. In December 2021, she gathered in London the foreign ministers of the countries of the region to announce her intention to strengthen her political and diplomatic presence in the Balkans. In winter, Foggy Albion also had its own special envoy to the Balkans for the first time - he became the ex-head of the NATO military committee and chief of the British defense staff Stuart Peach.

Special attention is paid to Bosnia and Herzegovina, more precisely - its entity, which, according to British ideologists, should not exist in its current form - the Republika Srpska. In April 2022, with the filing of Liz Truss, the British imposed sanctions against its leaders Milorad Dodik and Zhelka Tsviyanovich.

Moreover, the head of the British Foreign Ministry said that she would contribute to the introduction of similar restrictive measures by other countries acting as partners of Britain. In May 2022, Miss Truss personally visited Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she met with senior officials and the Minister of Defense and even made an appeal to the country's Armed Forces. Analysts have already called this visit a landmark for the new European order.

And according to Alicia Kearns, a member of the House of Commons, Britain's parliament has finally focused on responsibilities to "its friends in Bosnia and Herzegovina" - Bosnian Muslims. In addition to numerous NGOs working to promote the narrative of "genocide" in Srebrenica and war crimes committed by Serbs, Sarajevo is planning to open a British anti-disinformation hub. It will identify "Russian interference in the affairs of the Western Balkans."

The forces of the global network of Balkan media, bought out by the British conglomerate United Group, are also thrown into the fight against the "harmful influence" of Moscow. London is clearly interested in squeezing all the countries of the former Yugoslavia, including Montenegro and Serbia, out of Russia's sphere of influence.

The military presence in the region is also gradually increasing. Military instructors were sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the contingent in Kosovo in the fall of 2021 was strengthened by an elite unit of the British army, and in April 2022 the British delivered the first batch of ATGM Javelin and NLAW to the territory of the region. In addition, according to the President of Serbia, it is Britain that is one of the conductors of provocations in Kosovo and Metohija, which have every chance of developing into an armed clash.

Cities

• Sarajevo

Parliament

2022: Proportion of women in Parliament

Population

Population

2020: Population decline of 26.5% over 30 years

100,000 radical Islamists

By 2022, security experts are seriously concerned about the growing number of adherents of radical Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to Bosnian expert Dzhevad Galyashevich, their number in the country is already more than a hundred thousand.

The "import" of Mujahids to Bosnia during the war was established by the leader of Bosnian Muslims Aliya Izetbegovich and part-time author of the "Islamic Declaration." For the first time in Europe, it was on the Ozren front that Islamists began to chop their heads on camera.

The link between radicals and Bosnian Muslims was maintained through the Muslim Brotherhood from London. They collaborated with the Bosnian branch, the Young Muslims, led by Alia Izetbegovic. The Muslim Brotherhood had at its disposal all the resources of the Democratic Action Party and the capabilities of state institutions.

The El Mujahid battalion was not a paramilitarist structure, but was part of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the end of the war, many Islamists remained in Bosnia, received documents and created families. And also, with the financial support of Arab countries, they began to buy up land and spread the influence of radical Islam, opening training camps. In 2022, they are called "white Al-Qaeda," and in every terrorist attack committed in Europe, there is certainly a connection with Bosnia: Bosnian documents or weapons from the former Yugoslav republic were found in terrorists.

An additional risk factor is that in Bosnia in 2022 there are at least 12 thousand Afghans and several thousand Pakistanis and Iraqis - supporters of terrorist movements who entered the country on fake tourist visas.

On the territory of the country there are a hundred Wahhabi settlements, of which 21 are organized as "parajamaats" - self-proclaimed radical communities that are not recognized by the official Islamic community. In "parajamaats" they live by their own rules, ignoring the law. Law enforcement officers prefer not to appear there.

A large number of Bosnian citizens were also recruited and sent to fight for the interests of radical Islamists in other states - by their number, the country ranks first among European states. At the same time, militants who return from the Middle East front to their homeland, at best, receive a ridiculous fine or suspended sentence. But in Sarajevo, they turn a blind eye to the obvious threat: according to experts from the Rybar telegram channel, the Bosniaks expect that radical Islamists with combat experience in the future can become a punching fist against the Serbs.

National composition

Slavs

Croats

Jews

Poverty

2020:12% of Bosniaks undernourished

Migration

2021

Net outflow over 4 years

Illegal immigration crisis

Refugees from the Middle East and African countries broke into the Balkans in 2015. In search of a better life, they rushed from war-torn countries to Europe. In those days, their route did not yet affect Bosnia and Herzegovina - they used worked-out schemes to enter the EU through Serbia and Hungary or through Croatia to Slovenia. Then about 1.5 million people crossed the line, but only a few hundred were in Bosnia. The Bosniaks joked that the standard of living in the country is so low that even those fleeing civil war-torn Syria would not want to stay in it. And then they had no time for jokes, wrote Balkan Gossip Girl.

In the summer of 2015, in order to stop the flow of illegal immigrants in Hungary, a barrier was erected on the border, by the fall a similar structure appeared along the border with Croatia. Border control at the entrance to North Macedonia has also been strengthened. The number of illegal immigrants in Hungary and Macedonia has decreased significantly, and another one has been added to migration routes - through Bosnia and Herzegovina. And soon it became the main, and in the north of the country, in the forests in the vicinity of the Bihach community, a "separate state" was formed. Regular attacks on local villagers, rape and stabbing began, and their lives gradually turned into hell.

Mortality

2018

Number of drug deaths per million residents

Number of road deaths per 100,000 vehicles

The annual number of suicides per 100 thousand inhabitants

2016: Number of deaths from opioid use disorders

2012: Male-female suicide ratio

Culture

Religion

2022

65.9% of the population believes in life after death

35% of the population attends divine services at least once a month

2021:54% of the population say religion is important in their lives

Economy

GDP

2021: Agriculture's share of GDP - less than 6%

Inflation

2022

Inflation in November - 17.3%

Inflation in July - 15.8%

July

National debt

2023: State debt - 30% of GDP

Energy carriers

2020: Energy consumption per capita

and

Energy supplies

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a member of the Three Seas Initiative, aimed at countering Russia.

Unemployment

2020: Unemployment rate - 19%

Incomes of the population

2023: Minimum wage - $324

Consumption

Milk

2018: Milk consumption in litres per year per person

Meat

2023: Poultry meat is the most consumed type of meat

2019: Kuryatina is the most consumed type of meat

Beer

2019: Beer consumption in litres per year per person

R&D

2020: R&D expenses - $103 million

Health care

Maternity leave

in

2020: Duration of guaranteed paid sick leave 6 months or more

Crime

2021: Number of intentional murders

and

Prisons

2022: The minimum age for children to be jailed is 14

2018: Number of prisoners

History

2024: Conflict over Republika Srpska Day celebrations

The degree of confrontation between RS President Milorad Dodik and the central authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Western representatives in Bosnia sharply increased the celebration of January 9, 2024 of Republika Srpska Day.

The Constitutional Court of BiH three times recognized this holiday illegal, and the Venice Commission - discriminatory. On this day, in 1992, the independent Republic of the Serbian people of BiH was proclaimed, which the Bosnian Muslims and Croats there consider a prologue to the then bloody Bosnian war, ethnic cleansing and genocide. In December, Christian Schmidt, "a high representative of the world community," warned the leadership of the RS that the celebration of January 9 Republic Day is a criminal offense, and called on law enforcement agencies to take appropriate measures.

In response, Milorad Dodik announced that "there is no force that can disrupt the celebration." And it really took place, and demonstrative - with a parade and a procession of many thousands in Banja Luka.

In addition to the RS police units, Russian Night Wolves bikers took part in the celebration, and in addition to the symbols of the Republika Srpska itself, the demonstrators carried the flags of Serbia and Russia.

Authorities Britain have imposed sanctions on Banja Luka-based consultancy Mania. Under an agreement with the administration of the President of the RS, this company organized the celebration of January 9, Republic Day, receiving €122 thousand for this. She was instructed to hold the same event next year, but already for €209 thousand.

On January 17, a member of the Republika Srpska parliament from the Democratic Action Party, Ramiz Salkic, filed a lawsuit against Milorad Dodik and accuses him of "organizing an illegal celebration on January 9."

2020: Bosnia and Herzegovina awarded EU accession candidate status

In December 2022, the EU agreed to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a candidate for joining the community.

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Sport

2022: The most popular sport is football

Main article: Football

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