US lifts sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader

Washington has lifted sanctions imposed on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and members of his family, the US Department of the Treasury announced on Wednesday.

The restrictions, first introduced under President Joe Biden in 2022 and expanded in subsequent years, targeted Dodik for allegedly undermining the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which created Bosnia and Herzegovina as a nation composed of two largely autonomous entities – the Serb-majority Republika Srpska and the Bosnian-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Treasury decision follows Dodik’s formal agreement to relinquish his claim to power in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity he previously led as president.

In a post on X, Dodik expressed gratitude to US President Donald Trump, saying the move “corrected a grave injustice inflicted upon Republika Srpska, its representatives, and their families.” He said the move proved that “the accusations made against us were nothing but lies and propaganda.”

Dodik agreed to step aside after a conflict with Bosnia’s central government in Sarajevo and Christian Schmidt, the German diplomat heading the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the body supervising implementation of the Dayton Agreement. A Bosnian court earlier handed Dodik a prison sentence, which was later reduced to a fine. A new regional election is scheduled for November.

The politician has long opposed Bosnia’s integration into NATO and the European Union, instead advocating closer ties with Serbia and Russia. In an interview earlier this month, Dodik told Russian media that EU leaders had “destroyed all the advantages that [Western] Europe once offered” and accused them of adopting authoritarian and militaristic policies to conceal their failures.