Eurasia Press & News
Blagojevich hasn’t just been boosting Dodik, but also making alarmist statements about the security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina – claiming that anti-American Islamists could thrive in the country’s Bosniak and Croat-led Federation entity.
In the Federation entity, “Iran has developed a base of operations modelled after what it did with Hezbollah in Lebanon”, Blagojevich alleged in an article for the Washington Times.
“With the recent defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Assad regime in Syria, Iran may now be looking to Bosnia-Herzegovina as the next place to fill the void and establish its principal base of operations to replace Lebanon in exporting terrorism,” he continued, without providing evidence.
His claims are contradicted by EU and US reports in recent years, which state that Bosnia and Herzegovina has been making progress in combatting support for terrorism.
Responding to Blagojevich’s article, Bosnia’s ambassador to Washington, Sven Alkalaj, called it “deeply misleading and inflammatory”. Alkalaj described Dodik as pro-Russian and pro-Chinese, and argued that his nationalist agenda is “undermining American leadership and influence” in the Balkans.
Blagojevich’s interventions continued. Three days after his Washington Post article, he wondered whether the High Representative wanted to start a war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, given that he was pressing for the arrest of Dodik.
“Dodik is the duly elected president of Srpska,” Blagojevich wrote on X.
The American politician met Dodik when he visited Republika Srpska in June. While there, he stated that Dodik was one of the few European leaders who openly supported Trump’s return to office.
“The morning after Trump’s election, Dodik, wearing a red MAGA hat, organised a rally to celebrate Trump’s victory. Later that same day, [outgoing US President Joe] Biden slapped sanctions on him,” Blagojevich wrote, without noting that he was paid to promote Dodik.
Analysts say that Dodik is hoping that Trump will lift the sanctions imposed on him by the former US administration for alleged corruption and secessionist activities aimed at taking Republika Srpska out of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So far however, this has not happened.
Under the contract signed between his company RRB Strategies and the Republika Srpska’s Minister for European Integrations and International Cooperation, Zlatan Klokic, Blagojevich is engaged to publish articles that highlight the political motivation behind the legal actions against Dodik and other officials of Republika Srpska.
This includes “press statements … and lobbying several American officials to post warnings on social media about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, according to the contract.
However, in Republika Srpska, Blagojevich is presented as an envoy of the US administration, not as a paid lobbyist, argues Korajlic of Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“[He is portrayed as] a person with a political weight, even though corruption cases were pursued against him,” Korajlic said.
Speaking to Politico after he was engaged by Republika Srpska, Blagojevich said his motivation for getting involved was his belief that Serbia and Republika Srpska “can be bastions of Judea-Christian values in the Balkans just like Israel is in the Middle East”, and that he would “like to be able to play a role in that”.
