The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on a kleptocrat ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was ousted this month from the post of president of the Serb entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina for undermining the US-brokered peace deal that ended ethnic violence in the Balkans in the 1990s.
The lifting of sanctions against Milorad Dodik followed a months-long lobbying campaign by Donald Trump's allies, who portrayed the Serbian nationalist leader as a defender of "Christian values" in a country with a large Muslim population, and as the victim of a "legal battle" similar to the one the US president himself is facing.
Dodik had been sanctioned by the US for violating the Dayton Peace Accords, which were hard-won in Ohio in 1995 to end the Bosnian War. While the agreement stopped the bloodshed, it divided Bosnia into two entities: the Federation, where Bosnian Muslims share power with Croats, and the Serb-majority Republika Srpska.
During more than 20 years in and around power in Republika Srpska, Dodik has frequently threatened secession from Bosnia and “unification” with Serbia. He has stalled Bosnia’s integration into Europe by stoking ethnic tensions, meets frequently with Putin in Russia, and has built what the U.S. Treasury Department has previously called a “corrupt clientelist network.”
Bosniaks had recently begun to imagine a future without Dodik, after the long-time leader was convicted by a Bosnian federal court of undermining the Dayton accord, banned from holding public office and removed from the presidency. But experts say the sudden and abrupt lifting of sanctions against him could allow Dodik to continue to dominate Republika Srpska, showing other autocrats in the region that well-funded lobbying can pay dividends in Trump's Washington.
"What message does this send - that if you have the right connections and lobbyists, you can get off the sanctions list? It's setting a negative precedent," Andi Hoxhaj, a Balkans expert at King's College London, told CNN. He added that the Trump administration's decision, which came three weeks before the 30th anniversary of Dayton, was particularly disappointing.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) did not explain why it lifted sanctions on Dodik and dozens of his allies, family members, and companies linked to them. CNN has reached out to the Treasury Department for comment.
The State Department said the decision was made after the National Assembly of Republika Srpska took “constructive actions” in recent weeks to “improve stability” in the country – an apparent reference to the appointment of an interim president after Dodik was ousted in August and, after starting to resist Bosnian authorities, stepped down earlier this month.
Dodik thanked Trump and his allies for lifting the sanctions, calling the decision “correction of a grave injustice” inflicted on Republika Srpska “by the Obama and Biden administrations.” What Dodik did not mention, however, is that he was also sanctioned by the Trump administration itself in July 2017 for obstructing the Dayton agreement. The Biden administration imposed new sanctions on him in 2022 and again in early 2025.
Dodik began reaching out to Trump before the 2024 election, when the US president was facing dozens of criminal charges. “America needs you, but so does the rest of the world!” he wrote to Trump in September of that year, after the second assassination attempt on him.
The colors of the American flag illuminated the Palace of the Republic in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, on November 6, 2024, to mark the re-election of US President Donald Trump.
Since Trump returned to the White House, Dodik's efforts have been bolstered by some of the president's allies. Rod Blagojevich — the former Illinois governor who spent eight years in prison on corruption charges before being pardoned by Trump in February — has been posting for months in support of Dodik.
In a post on Wednesday thanking Trump for lifting sanctions on Dodik, Blagojevich concluded with the words: “This material is distributed by RRB Strategies LLC on behalf of Republika Srpska. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.”
Justice Department documents show that RRB Strategies, Blagojevich’s firm, signed a contract with the Srpska government in March, committing to “lobby state representatives to prevent what is perceived as a witch hunt against Srpska officials” and to “seek the lifting of sanctions” against them. The value of the contract was redacted.
Another lobbyist, Marc Zell, signed a contract with the Srpska government in December 2024 worth $1 million for a year of work, plus a bonus if his firm succeeded in lifting sanctions on Dodik and his allies, according to documents filed on the Justice Department's Foreign Agents Registration Act website. In an email to CNN, Zell said the bonus clause had been rescinded in accordance with U.S. law.
This month, prominent figures from the MAGA movement joined the chorus of Trump allies defending Dodik. Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer with direct access to the president, said Dodik’s dismissal as president of Srpska was “the latest example of an open attack on Trump-like leaders around the world.” She claimed that Dodik — a “Christian” leader — is “facing relentless political attacks from a coalition of Muslims and globalists.”
Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, called for Trump to "embrace" Dodik and for the US to join with Srpska to defeat the globalists "who seek our destruction."
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and Trump's former personal lawyer, visited Srpska in February and invited Dodik to his podcast, where they displayed hats with the inscription "Make Srpska Great Again" alongside Trump's famous MAGA hats.
Hoxhaj, the Balkans expert, said Dodik will use the lifting of sanctions to claim “before his people and public opinion that he has been rehabilitated by the US, and that what was done to him was unjust.”
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the lifting of sanctions as “reckless and premature.”
“Dodik has undermined the Dayton Peace Agreement, has become close to Putin and has profited from corruption – these are hardly reasons to exempt him from sanctions,” she said. “The American people deserve answers.”/CNN
