On October 29, 2025, a dramatic shift unfolded in the Balkans as the United States officially lifted sanctions on Milorad Dodik, the former president of Bosnia’s Serb-led Republika Srpska entity, along with dozens of his closest associates, family members, and companies connected to them. The reversal, confirmed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), ended years of financial penalties that had been imposed for actions Washington previously described as undermining Bosnia’s fragile peace and the 1995 Dayton Accords.
The news broke in the early hours on the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence website, catching many observers off guard. Until recently, Dodik was a central figure in the region’s political turbulence, known for his staunchly pro-Russian stance and repeated calls for the Serb-run half of Bosnia to secede and join Serbia. His rhetoric, and the policies he championed, stirred deep anxieties across Bosnia—a country whose wounds from the 1992-95 war, which killed around 100,000 people and displaced millions, remain raw.
Sanctions against Dodik and his network had been in place since 2022, imposed by the Biden administration following accusations of corruption and separatist threats. The U.S. government charged that Dodik’s actions risked destabilizing the region and undermining the peace accord that ended the bloody conflict three decades ago. According to AP, the sanctions targeted not only Dodik himself but extended to his adult children, Igor and Gorica, and a host of business entities, including the media outlet Alternativna TV, which the U.S. closely linked to his family.
But Dodik’s political fortunes shifted dramatically in 2025. After a Bosnian court found him guilty of defying decisions by the High Representative—the international overseer of Bosnia’s peace settlement—Dodik’s presidential mandate was revoked in August. He was sentenced to one year in prison and banned from holding presidential office for six years. Facing mounting international pressure, Dodik agreed to step down, and on October 18, the Republika Srpska National Assembly appointed Ana Trišić Babić as acting president until new elections scheduled for November 23.
The U.S. move to lift sanctions did not stop with Dodik. According to Balkan Insight, the penalties were also removed for 47 other individuals and companies. Among them were Željka Cvijanović, the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency and a close Dodik ally, National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić, former Prime Minister Radovan Višković, Minister of Energy Petar Đokić, Minister of Foreign Trade Staša Košarac, and former Minister of Internal Affairs Siniša Karan. The list extended to companies such as Una TV and more than a dozen other legal entities.
Željka Cvijanović, upon arriving in Paris, shared her reaction on X (formerly Twitter): “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.” Her statement reflected a sense of vindication shared by many in Dodik’s camp.
This sweeping rollback followed a series of earlier moves. On October 17, the U.S. had already lifted sanctions on four individuals connected to Dodik for their roles in organizing the controversial January 9 Republika Srpska Day celebrations—an event declared unconstitutional by Bosnia’s top court. The celebrations, and the laws supporting them, had long been flashpoints. In the wake of the sanctions being lifted, the Republika Srpska Assembly voted to formally retract six entity-level laws that had previously been annulled by the state-level Constitutional Court, including a contentious law on immovable property. Dodik had famously described this issue as a “red line not to be crossed.”
In his first public reaction, Dodik took to social media to thank former U.S. President Donald Trump and his associates. “I am grateful to President Donald Trump and to his associates for correcting the great injustice inflicted on Republika Srpska, its representatives and their families – an injustice created by the Obama and Biden administrations. The decision to lift the sanctions is not only a legal, but a moral rehabilitation of the truth about the Republic of Srpska and all who honorably serve it,” Dodik wrote on X, echoing a sense of vindication. He went further, stating, “Once again, it turned out that everything that was said against us was a lie and propaganda, on which the great mess created by Christian Schmidt was built – a mess that must now be cleaned up.”
For years, Dodik has clashed with Christian Schmidt, the international envoy charged with overseeing Bosnia’s peace process, repeatedly declaring Schmidt’s decisions “illegal” in Republika Srpska. The ongoing friction between Dodik and the international community has repeatedly threatened the delicate balance established by the Dayton Accords, which split Bosnia into two semi-autonomous entities—the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation—while maintaining some joint institutions like the army and judiciary.
Behind the scenes, sources cited by Balkan Insight and Radio Free Europe suggest that the campaign to remove the sanctions was both intense and strategic. After Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, the Serb-led entity ramped up its lobbying efforts in Washington, focusing on overturning the penalties against Dodik and his associates. The change in U.S. leadership appears to have played a crucial role in the decision, though officials from the White House, Treasury, and State Department did not immediately respond to media requests for comment on the rationale behind the reversal.
The lifting of sanctions has been met with a mix of relief and skepticism. Supporters of Dodik and the Republika Srpska leadership see it as a long-overdue correction of what they view as politically motivated punishment. Dodik himself framed the move as a “moral vindication of the truth about Republika Srpska and all those who have served it with honor.” Others, particularly among Bosnia’s Bosniak and Croat communities, as well as international observers, worry that the decision could embolden separatist rhetoric and threaten the peace that has held—albeit tenuously—since the end of the war.
As the region awaits the upcoming Republika Srpska presidential elections in late November, uncertainty lingers. Will Dodik and his allies seize the moment to push for greater autonomy, or even renewed secessionist efforts? Or will the lifting of sanctions open a new chapter, one marked by less confrontation with the international community and a return to political pragmatism?
For now, the only certainty is that the U.S. decision has upended the political calculus in Bosnia and the wider Balkans. As Dodik himself declared, “Today it is clear—it will never fall.” Whether that defiance signals stability or further discord remains to be seen.
