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The Trump administration on Wednesday lifted international sanctions on Milorad Dodik — the pro-Russian leader of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb-dominated region, Republika Srpska — as well as on his children, dozens of allies, and their companies.
The move came without explanation in a bulletin from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a day after Dodik met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“I am grateful to President Donald Trump and his associates for correcting the great injustice done to Republika Srpska, its representatives, and their families — an injustice created by the Obama and Biden administrations,” Dodik wrote on X.
Dodik, 65, is the former president of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous regions, and remains its most powerful political figure. He was forced to step down after a court banned him from politics for six years and sentenced him to one year in prison for defying the decisions of the international envoy overseeing Bosnia’s postwar peace accord.
A longtime advocate of Republika Srpska’s secession and unification with neighboring Serbia — a wartime goal of the Bosnian Serbs that fueled the 1992–95 conflict — Dodik was sanctioned in 2017 for obstructing the U.S.-brokered Dayton Peace Agreement.
In 2023, the Biden administration expanded sanctions to include Dodik’s children and several family-linked companies, accusing them of facilitating “Dodik’s ongoing corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s RS entity, allowing him to siphon public funds … and enrich himself and his family at the expense of BiH citizens and functional governance,” according to the Treasury Department.
Despite those sanctions, Dodik’s government spent heavily on lobbying efforts in Washington to have them lifted. Among those advocating on his behalf were former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — both with ties to Trump’s inner circle.
Trump commuted Blagojevich’s prison sentence in 2020 and fully pardoned him in February, clearing the way for him to resume political activity and launch a lobbying firm.
“Thank you to the Trump administration for removing ALL sanctions imposed on Pres. Dodik, his family & his associates in the Republic of Srpska by the weaponized Biden & Obama administrations,” Blagojevich wrote on X — omitting the fact that Dodik was first sanctioned under Trump in 2017.
Blagojevich added: “It’s a new day in the Balkans, where Serb & Croat Christians can hope for true autonomy and closer ties to the United States.”
The move came a week after right-wing activist Laura Loomer posted messages portraying Christian Serbs as victims of Muslim forces during the Bosnian war. She warned that “if Muslims take control of Srpska through their growing political influence and alliances with radical left-wing globalists, it will destroy Western values … and undermine Christianity.”
In fact, according to rulings by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Bosnian Serb forces committed the vast majority of atrocities during the 1992–95 conflict, including the genocide in Srebrenica in which over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were systematically executed.
Mark Zell, a Washington lobbyist representing Dodik’s government, thanked Loomer online for “responding to our entreaties about this critical issue.” Her posts were amplified by conservative commentator Lara Logan, who had hosted Dodik on her podcast on September 6. Dodik appeared with a photo of himself wearing a Trump cap and showered the U.S. President with praise.
However, some say the lifting of sanctions likely came at a political price. Earlier this year, Republika Srpska’s parliament — dominated by Dodik’s party — passed several unconstitutional measures undermining the peace agreement. But in a sudden reversal two weeks ago, lawmakers repealed those laws — an act seen in Sarajevo as part of a behind-the-scenes deal with Washington.
Bosnian Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković said such a deal might ultimately benefit the country. “The removal of the sanctions is a message from the American administration to him and his allies who have kept their part of the bargain,” he said, adding that sanctions could always be reimposed.
“The main message is stabilization and de-escalation — something that makes us happy,” Konaković said.
In Washington, New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen denounced the lifting of the sanctions as “reckless and premature.”
“Dodik has undermined the Dayton Peace Agreement, cozied up to Putin, and profited from corruption — hardly grounds for relief. The American people deserve answers,” she said.
