(ANSA-AFP) - WASHINGTON, JAN 6 - The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and a television network close to him, ramping up pressure on fears his secessionist moves will undo a fragile 25-year-old peace. "Milorad Dodik's destabilizing corrupt activities and attempts to dismantle the Dayton Peace Accords, motivated by his own self-interest, threaten the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire region," Brian Nelson, the under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. Dodik, a former social democrat turned nationalist with ties to Russia, has increasingly made good on longstanding secession threats of the Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity created under the US-brokered 1995 Dayton Accords that ended the former Yugoslav republic's brutal war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, vowing to back the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Bosnia, also announced that the United States would ban visas for two other leaders over corruption allegations. (ANSA-AFP).