In 2021, under the Democrat administration of President Joe Biden, lobbyists hired by the Republika Srpska authorities were focussed mainly on forwarding messages from Banja Luka to US senators, including Marco Rubio, now US Secretary of State.
In early 2022, however, the focus shifted to direct conversations with, for example, Robin Brooks, the then director of the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the US State Department and Republican congressman Robert Aderholt.
“Our goal is a network of relevant interlocutors who share key principles: respect for Dayton, appreciation of reality, and readiness for rational cooperation,” said Ana Trisic Babic, director of the Office for International Cooperation of the Republika Srpska.
Trump’s return to office in January 2025 brought a significant hike in spending by the Republika Srpska in the US. Since then, the entity has hired four new lobbying firms: Zell & Associates International Advocates, Stokes Strategies, GS2Law and Continental Strategy.
Zell & Associates International Advocates was paid around a million euros, though almost half of that went to an Israeli subcontractor called Gilad Government Relations and Lobbying.
One of the most influential lobbying firms in Israel, Gilad is co-owned by Ariel Sender, who headed Trump’s campaign among US citizens in Israel during the 2016 and 2020 elections; in 2012, the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, temporarily revoked the entry passes for Gilad staff amid an ethics scandal.
Zell & Associates did not respond to a request for comment.
Republika Srpska also paid around half a million euros to Stokes Strategies, whose submissions to FARA show it focussed on building relations with conservative organisations and meetings in Congress.
Stokes paid Christine Czerjenewski of Firefly Communications some 50,000 euros for research work. Czerjenewski has connections in US conservative circles and the Republican Party and is a former fellow of the conservative public policy group The Heritage Foundation, described by The New York Times this week as a “bastion of American conservatism”.
Neither Stokes Strategies nor Firefly Communications responded to requests for comment.
A month before the US lifted sanctions on Dodik & Co, Republika Srpska authorities hired GS2Law to the tune of 130,000 euros.
According to their FARA report, GS2Law was tasked with legal research and preparation of a lawsuit “in connection with the previous listing of certain citizens and entities of Republika Srpska on the OFAC [sanctions] list”.
GS2Law did not respond to a request for comment.
Continental Strategy was hired earlier this year, on a contract worth around 660,000 euros. The firm is led by former Trump adviser Carlos Trujillo.
