The citizens of Bosnia—Bosnia and Herzegovina, to give it its correct full name—would like to know when a president is not a president. On August 6th the country’s Central Election Commission stripped Milorad Dodik of the presidency of the Serbian autonomous half of the country, known as the Republika Srpska (RS), a decision that has since been upheld on appeal. Yet Mr Dodik refuses to accept this. Thirty years after the end of the Bosnian war, the country lurches from crisis to crisis. But even by Bosnian standards, this one looks exceptionally grave.