US lifts sanctions on Putin-backed Bosnian Serb strongman after Trump allies’ lobbying

By Christian Edwards, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on a kleptocratic ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was removed this month as president of the Serb territory within Bosnia and Herzegovina for chipping away at the US-brokered peace deal that ended bloody ethnic violence in the Balkans in the 1990s.

The waiving of sanctions on Milorad Dodik followed a months-long lobbying effort by allies of Donald Trump, which painted the Serb nationalist leader as a defender of “Christian values” in a country with a large Muslim population, and a victim of the sort of “lawfare” waged against the US president.

Dodik had been sanctioned by the US for flouting the Dayton Peace Agreement, which was painstakingly thrashed out in Ohio in 1995 to end the Bosnian War. While the agreement stopped the bloodshed, it carved Bosnia into two entities: the Federation, where Bosnian Muslims share power with Croats, and the Serb-majority Republika Srpska.

Over 20 years in and around power in Srpska, Dodik routinely threatened to split from Bosnia and “reunite” with Serbia. He has halted Bosnia’s integration into Europe by stoking ethnic tensions, often meets with Putin in Russia and has cultivated what the US Treasury Department previously called a “corrupt patronage network.”

Bosnians had recently begun to imagine a post-Dodik future, after the longtime leader was convicted by a federal Bosnian court of undermining the Dayton agreement, banned from holding political office and stripped of his post as president. But experts say that the sudden and unexpected removal of sanctions against Dodik could allow him to continue to dominate Srpska, while demonstrating to other autocrats in the region that well-funded lobbying can reap rewards from Trump’s Washington.

“What sort of message does this send – that if you have the right connections and the right lobbyists, you can be removed from the sanctions list? It’s setting a negative precedent,” Andi Hoxhaj, a Balkan expert at King’s College London, told CNN. Coming three weeks before Dayton’s 30th anniversary, he said the timing of the Trump administration’s decision was especially dispiriting.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) did not explain why it had removed sanctions on Dodik, as well as dozens of his allies, his family members and companies linked to them. CNN has asked the Treasury Department for comment.

The State Department said the decision was taken after Srpska’s National Assembly took “constructive actions” in recent weeks to “improve stability” in the country, in apparent reference to Srpska’s installation of an interim president after Dodik was stripped of the role in August and – after initially threatening to defy Bosnian authorities – stepped aside earlier this month.

Dodik hailed Trump and his allies for waiving the sanctions against him, saying the decision corrected “a grave injustice” inflicted upon Srpska “by the Obama and Biden administrations.” What Dodik failed to mention, however, is that he was also sanctioned by the Trump administration in July 2017 for obstructing the Dayton agreement. The Biden administration imposed fresh sanctions on him in 2022 and again in early 2025.

Dodik began to court Trump before the 2024 election, when the president was facing dozens of criminal charges. “America needs you, but the rest of the world as well!” Dodik wrote to Trump in September that year, following the second assassination attempt against him.

Since Trump’s return to the White House, Dodik’s overtures have been amplified by several allies of the president. Rod Blagojevich – the former Illinois governor who spent eight years in prison on corruption charges before being pardoned by Trump in February – has posted in support of Dodik for months.

In a post on Wednesday thanking Trump for waiving the sanctions on Dodik, Blagojevich signed off: “This material is distributed by RRB Strategies LLC on behalf of the Republic of Srpska. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.”

Filings to the Justice Department show RRB Strategies, Blagojevich’s firm, signed a contract with the Srpska government in March, agreeing to “lobby state representatives to prevent what is perceived as a witch hunt against Srpska officials” and “seek the lifting of sanctions” against them. The value of that contract was redacted.

Marc Zell, another lobbyist, also signed a contract with the Srpska government in December 2024 worth $1 million for one year’s work, plus a bonus if Zell’s firm successfully brought about the removal of sanctions on Dodik and his allies, according to documents also filed with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act website. In an email, Zell told CNN that the bonus fee provision was canceled in accordance with US law.

This month, prominent MAGA figures joined the chorus of Trump allies championing Dodik’s cause. Laura Loomer, the far-right influencer with a direct line to the president, said Dodik’s removal as president of Srpska was “the latest example of the brazen assault against Trump-like leaders across the world.” She claimed Dodik – a “Christian” leader – was “enduring ruthless 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 forces with Srpska to defeat globalists “who seek all of our demise.”

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and Trump’s one-time personal attorney, visited Srpska in February and hosted Dodik on his podcast, displaying “Make Srpska Great Again” hats alongside Trump’s famous MAGA hats.

Hoxhaj, the Balkan expert, said Dodik will use the sanctions relief to claim “to his people and to the public that he has been vindicated by the US, and that what was done to him was unjust.”

US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, denounced the lifting of sanctions as “reckless and premature.”

“Dodik has undermined the Dayton Peace Agreement, cozied up to Putin and profited from corruption – hardly grounds for relief,” she said. “The American people deserve answers.”

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