With two votes in favour and 13 abstentions, the UN Security Council rejected a resolution by Russia and China calling for the abolition of the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Russian representative Dmitri Polanski received this decision with regret and asked the Council not to take further destructive steps.

Prior to the vote, the Russian Representative noted that Russia takes its position as one of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 war in the country, guarantors and members of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) seriously.

According to him, Russia is convinced that the stability and economic development of BiH is only possible if the principles of sovereignty, independence and equality of the three constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats).

Polanski said that 25 years after the signing of the Dayton Agreement, the High Representative was supposed to have a stabilizing role. Instead, he argued the institution developed a web of power thanks to the Bonn powers, giving him the power to make unilateral decisions.

The post-Dayton situation, which Bosnia is in, is much more different than envisaged for the High Representative’s role.

This is a developing story.