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The US Treasury Department has announced that it has removed from its sanctions list four allies of Milorad Dodik, the president of the Serb entity in Bosnia, one of the most contested figures in the Balkans. Jelena Pajic Bastinac, Danijel Dragicevic, Goran Rakovic and Dijana Milankovic are no longer subject to US punitive measures, despite their involvement in activities that defied court decisions and international institutions.
The move was immediately welcomed by Dodik himself, who has long been under sanctions for undermining the Dayton Agreement and supporting separatist policies that threaten stability in Bosnia. Dodik himself has stated that he has engaged lobbyists in the US to influence the lifting of the measures against him and is already seeing results.
In contrast to this development, the situation for former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha remains unchanged. Despite intense lobbying in the United States and reported spending in the millions of dollars on international firms seeking to influence American policy, Berisha continues to be the subject of a “persona non grata” declaration by the State Department.
The announcement of Berisha, made in May 2021 by Secretary Antony Blinken, was based on allegations of grand corruption and the undermining of democracy. Since then, Berisha has waged a sustained campaign to overturn the decision, denying the charges and claiming to be the victim of a political conspiracy, but without concrete success in the international arena.
While Dodik defies the West and is reaping partial success in confronting sanctions, Berisha remains politically isolated from the US, proving that Washington's standards on issues of corruption and democratic order are not easily softened, despite lobbying efforts.
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