Meeting with President of Republika Srpska Sinisa Karan

Representing the Russian side at the meeting were Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Lavrov SergeiMinister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation , Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak Novak AlexanderDeputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation , Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov Ushakov YuryAide to the President , and Head of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology and Chairman of the Russian part of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation Anton Shalayev.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President,

I would like to welcome you to Moscow on your first visit as President of Republika Srpska.

I am also pleased to see here with you Mr Stevandic, Speaker of the National Assembly, as well as our long-standing friend, Milorad Dodik.

As I mentioned to you privately, we greatly appreciate your personal participation in the events marking the 81^st anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. As you rightly noted, this is our shared holiday. We know that in Republika Srpska, May 9 is also officially observed as Victory Day over Nazism. On this day, we honour the memory of those who, through immense sacrifice and at the cost of their own lives, defended the right to peace, freedom, and independence.

We have developed constructive and regular cooperation with Mr Dodik, and it is important that all of you are like-minded persons. The Russian side remains firmly committed to continuing productive cooperation with Republika Srpska.

Relations between Republika Srpska and Russia are rooted in centuries-old traditions of friendship and the close spiritual ties between our peoples. We share a common vision of history as well as a stance towards the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Balkans, and Europe. We jointly speak out in favour of a more just international order and the promotion of mutually beneficial cooperation free from interference in internal affairs. We will continue to foster our partnership in the political, economic, cultural, and humanitarian spheres.

We will continue to develop our partnership in the political, economic, cultural, and humanitarian spheres. And I would like to reiterate what I said when we entered this hall: the Serbian and Russian peoples, along with the other peoples of Russia have for centuries shared especially close ties and a deep mutual understanding.

We are very pleased to see you here in Moscow. Welcome.

To be continued.