New Economy Forum
Bosnian Hardliners Prevail in Vote, Risking New Ethnic Strife
- Pro-Russia leader Dodik to represent Serbs in joint presidency
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Nationalists prevailed in elections for Bosnia’s multi-ethnic, power-sharing institutions in victories that are sure to further fuel distrust and tension in a country that’s been divided since a devastating war in the 1990s.
The Balkan nation of 3.5 million people has flirted with spiraling back into crisis since agreeing to a U.S.-brokered peace pact in 1995 that left the country semi-divided along the ethnic lines but with centralized rule. The Serb half has threatened to declare independence, which would exacerbate tension in a region that’s at the heart of a struggle for influence between Russia and the West.