Milorad Dodik wearing a Donald Trump ‘MAGA’ cap in Banja Luka. Photo: Milorad Dodik/X.
In a sudden change of approach, the United States’ Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC on Wednesday lifted sanctions that had been imposed on the former president of Bosnia’s Serb-led Republika Srpska entity, Milorad Dodik, and on 47 individuals and companies connected to him.
Sanctions were also lifted from Zeljka Cvijanovic, the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency and one of Dodik’s closest associates, Republika Srpska assembly speaker Nenad Stevandic, Dodik’s adult children, Igor and Gorica, and more than a dozen companies connected to them.
“Upon landing in Paris, I was greeted with good news – US sanctions have been lifted for 30 individuals and more than a dozen legal entities from Republika Srpska, including its top officials,” Cvijanovic wrote on X.
The US imposed sanctions on Republika Srpska officials in several rounds for undermining the 1995 Dayton peace accords, which ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, for participation in the organisation of the Day of Republika Srpska on January 9, which the Constitutional Court of Bosnia has declared unconstitutional, or for implementing unconstitutional laws.
On October 17, the US lifted sanctions on four individuals connected to Dodik – Danijel Dragicevic, chief-of-staff to the Republika Srpska president, Jelena Pajic Bastinac, secretary general of the entity’s presidency, Milenkovic Dijana, director of Radio Television of Republika Srpska and Goran Rakovic, who was head of protocol in the office of the Republika Srpska president. All of them were sanctioned for participation in organising the January 9 celebrations.
After that, the National Assembly appointed Ana Trisic Babic as the acting president of Republika Srpska until elections for a new Republika Srpska president are held on November 23.
Dodiks presidential mandate was finally revoked in August following a court verdict sentencing him to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding presidential office for defying decisions of the High Representative, Bosnia’s international overseer.
Republika Srpska Assembly deputies also voted to retract six entity-level laws that had already been annulled by the state-level Constitutional Court.
Among them was the law on immovable property, which Republika Srpska used to assign state property in the entity to the entity authorities. Dodik had described this issue as a “red line not to be crossed”.
The decision to remove sanctions comes after the Serb-led entity invested heavily in lobbying the US after Donald Trump returned as US president in January. The lobbying was aimed mainly at removing sanctions on Dodik and his close associates, including Cvijanovic.
