Bosnian Serb lawmakers on Thursday passed a set of laws barring central Bosnian judiciary and police from the Serb-run entity in Bosnia, sending tensions soaring in the troubled Balkan country after a court convicted its pro-Russia president and banned him from politics.

Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison on Wednesday and ordered to step down from his role as president of the country's Serb-dominated region for six years for defying orders of an international peace envoy.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A court in Bosnia on Wednesday sentenced Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia Bosnian Serb president, to one year in prison and banned him from engaging in politics for six years over his separatist actions.

But the Bosnian-Serb leader Milorad Dodik made light of the verdict at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The president of the country's majority-Serb Republika Srpska region told supporters at a rally in the regional capital Banja Luka there was "no reason to worry".