Milorad Dodik, the separatist leader of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska, said that a new law on ‘foreign agents’ will be introduced in the entity, claiming that this time a positive signal has been sent by US President Donald Trump, who suspended financing for NGOs.

Republika Srpska, where Dodik’s SNSD party has ruled for decades, adopted a similar law last year but it was banned by the state-level constitutional court. The law was similar to those in Russia and Belarus.

Dodik said that Trump’s decision was “a signal to Republika Srpska to adopt its own law on these organisations”, which, he said in an interview for state broadcaster RTRS, are using foreign funds to harm the Serb entity and its people.

“This will no longer be possible and will not work, because a rigorous law will be adopted,” Dodik said.

“There are all sorts of scum here who use foreign funds and do everything to smear the Serbian people and Republika Srpska. We shall not take revenge, but we shall only say one thing – you will not be able to do that anymore,” Dodik said.

He added that the law will be adopted at the first session of Republika Srpska’s parliament.

“It will be more rigorous than the one we have proposed when we wanted to make a compromise, and since you did not want a compromise but thought that you could govern, now you will get a law that will be rigorous,” Dodik said referring to the state-level authorities.

Bosnia comprises two autonomous entities – the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska. Each of them has its own institutions and there are also state-level bodies.

Dodik added that the adoption of the law will be made even at the price of Bosnia’s EU membership path.

“We are not interested in the EU’s opinion on this. If that is the end of the path, that’s fine. You will not tell us what to do here,” Dodik said.