Balkan Leaders: Milorad Dodik

Thought by many to be the most openly nationalist politician in the Balkans, Milorad Dodik is a staunch supporter of Bosnian Serb separatism and continues to threaten with seceding the entity of the Republika Srpska, or what amounts to about half of Bosnia’s territory.

For years, the president of the Serb-dominated entity has been instrumental in institutionalising genocide denial and the glorification of war criminals. Things got so bad that Bosnia needed its foreign peace envoy to circumvent institutions and pass a law banning the practice.

And then there’s his friendship with the Kremlin. Although a two-bit player on the global scene, Dodik has made international headlines by meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin twice since the February invasion of Ukraine. And he was Bosnia’s head of state at the time.

Who is Milorad Dodik, and how did he become the alpha and omega of Serb nationalism? 

We called Florian Bieber, a professor of Southeast European History and Politics and the director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz to help us untangle it.

Supported by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Gesellschaftsanalyse und Politische Bildung e.V. – Ured u Bosni i Hercegovini with funds of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This publication or parts of it can be used by others for free as long as they provide a proper reference to the original publication.

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