Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said in an interview with the BBC he plans to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to support his push for an independence referendum in Republika Srpska, in a move that risks deepening Bosnia’s worst political crisis in years.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is meaningless. After all the international operations, pressures, tricks and deceptions, it is a defective country. It does not deserve the right to exist and it is logical that the Serbian people demand their right to the status of an independent state,” Dodik told the BBC Russian Service in an interview published on August 31.

Dodik, who was recently removed as the president of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s two entities, has long defied central authorities in Sarajevo. 

Tensions escalated in August after the Constitutional Court banned him from public office for six years, a ruling followed by the Central Election Commission removing him from his post as president and scheduling new elections. Dodik rejected the decisions and continues to carry out his presidential duties.

A referendum organised by Dodik is planned for October 25, asking Republika Srpska residents whether they recognise the authority of Bosnia’s Constitutional Court and the international high representative overseeing the Dayton peace accords. Sarajevo and Western diplomats say the ballot is unconstitutional and separatist in nature.

Bosnia’s Central Election Commission, meanwhile, plans to hold elections for a new Republika Srpska president in November. 

Dodik said he hoped Moscow would shift its stance and back secession. “We have discussed this before, but Putin has always supported the Dayton Agreement and the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina … But a lot has changed since then. I will try to convince him to support our position,” he told the BBC. The Dayton Agreement ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia that killed more than 100,000 people.