MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to facilitate Bosnia and Herzegovina's enhancement as a factor of European stability, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.
"The Russian side is set to go on helping Bosnia and Herzegovina enhance [itself] as a factor of
European stability, including through comprehensive and mutually beneficial cooperation," the ministry said in a document published on the 10th anniversary of the initialing of the Dayton agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Moscow thinks the time-proven positive of the Dayton agreement must serve as the groundwork for the country's possible constitutional process.
At the same time, the ministry said the decade of the peace agreement's implementation had revealed some drawbacks in the governance system set out in Dayton.
"The excessively intrusive international presence and attempts to replace Bosnian institutions of state power have led to the development of the 'syndrome of dependence' on the external factor in the political life of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Democratic institutions dominated by the international presence are losing their value in people's eyes. No proper progress was made to harmonize interethnic relations either," the ministry said.
Agreements were initialed at a U.S. airbase near Dayton, Ohio, ten years ago, putting an end to an interethnic civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and determined the state and legal foundation of this former Yugoslavian republic.
In accordance with the agreement, signed December 14, 1995, the Serbian Republic and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were founded, their borders fixed and NATO-led stabilization forces deployed in the region.
