52 Facts About Milorad Dodik

Milorad Dodik is a Bosnian Serb politician serving as the 8th president of Republika Srpska since November 2022.

Milorad Dodik was the prime minister of Republika Srpska from 1998 to 2001 and from 2006 to 2010, and the president of Republika Srpska from 2010 until 2018.

Much like the SNSD, Milorad Dodik was initially considered as a moderate and reformist alternative to the ultranationalist Serb Democratic Party in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Milorad Dodik was born in Banja Luka to Bogoljub and Mira Milorad Dodik.

Milorad Dodik lived in Laktasi, where he attended elementary school.

From 1986 through 1990, Milorad Dodik was the Chairman of the executive board of the Municipal Assembly of Laktasi.

Milorad Dodik was elected as the first President of SNSD.

Milorad Dodik was nominated Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, even though his party had only two seats in the National Assembly.

Milorad Dodik had support from Western countries that were seeking to marginalise the Serbian nationalists.

The Western countries promised that, if Milorad Dodik remains the prime minister, Republika Srpska would receive Western economic assistance.

In mid-February 2007, Milorad Dodik traveled to the United States, where he was received by Madeleine Albright.

On 1 June 2008, during a visit to Zagreb, Milorad Dodik stated that Operation Storm was an act of ethnic cleansing carried out against Serbs and regarded it the "greatest ethnic cleansing committed after World War II".

Croatian president Stjepan Mesic criticised Milorad Dodik for encouraging dissatisfied Serbs in Croatia to live in Republika Srpska while neglecting to invite Bosniak and Croat refugees to return.

On 12 December 2008, Milorad Dodik stated that Muslim judges should not be allowed to preside over cases in Republika Srpska.

On 27 October 2009, Milorad Dodik provided an RS government jet to pick up Biljana Plavsic, former President of Republika Srpska convicted of war crimes, and welcomed her to Belgrade after her early release from a Swedish prison.

In November 2009, Milorad Dodik refused to hand over requested documents detailing the financing of a government building complex in Banja Luka worth 110 million euro and the construction of a highway to international prosecutors at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milorad Dodik stated that the court had no jurisdiction over Republika Srpska and filed a lawsuit against Deputy High Representative Raffi Gregorian Archived 31 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine and international prosecutors.

Milorad Dodik accused Gregorian of leading a plot against Republika Srpska and said a bias against Serbs existed among central-level prosecutors and judges.

On 10 November 2009, Milorad Dodik revealed that he seriously considered giving Biljana Plavsic an office in the Senate.

On 19 January 2010, Croatian president Stjepan Mesic stated that if Milorad Dodik were to call a referendum for independence for Republika Srpska he would send the Croatian military to intervene.

Milorad Dodik announced his candidacy in the Bosnian general election on 26 December 2017, running for Bosnia's three-person Presidency member, representing the Serbs.

Milorad Dodik eventually relented, agreeing to hold the session with only the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In March 2019, Milorad Dodik appointed acclaimed filmmaker Emir Kusturica as his advisor.

Milorad Dodik was reported for verbally insulting Central Election Commission member Vanja Bjelica-Prutina for deciding to repeat the 2020 Bosnian municipal elections in the cities of Doboj and Srebrenica, where Dodik's party had won, because of electoral irregularities.

On 22 May 2021, Dzaferovic and Croat Presidency member Zeljko Komsic attended a military exercise between the United States Army and the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina on mount Manjaca, south of the city Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Milorad Dodik refused to attend it.

In making the announcement, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E Nelson said that "Milorad Dodik's destabilizing corrupt activities and attempts to dismantle the Dayton Peace Accords, motivated by his own self-interest, threaten the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire region".

On 16 November 2022, Milorad Dodik was succeeded by Zeljka Cvijanovic as the Serb member of the Presidency.

On 21 December 2020, Milorad Dodik was admitted to hospital due to bilateral pneumonia, but did not contract COVID-19.

Some days before, Milorad Dodik unsuccessfully tried to prevent Turkovic's Security Council address, even writing a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asking him for help.

In June 2021, Milorad Dodik signed the SEECP Declaration in Antalya, Turkey, which among other things, incorporates talks about NATO integration.

Originally a big advocate and supporter of the European Union, Milorad Dodik has gradually become much more Eurosceptic and critical about the EU.

In September 2021, Milorad Dodik went to Budapest, Hungary to attend its Demographic Summit.

On 20 May 2022, Milorad Dodik met with European Council President Charles Michel, during his visit to Sarajevo, with whom he discussed about Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession to the EU.

In November 2021, Milorad Dodik went to Ankara and again met with Erdogan.

Milorad Dodik's meeting with Erdogan was focused on the political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, following Valentin Inzko's imposed changes to the law banning genocide denial in the country.

In October 2010, Milorad Dodik narrowly won the RS presidential election already in the first round, thus becoming the 8th president of the republic.

On 30 November 2010, leaked United States diplomatic cables revealed that Milorad Dodik supported the Ahtisaari plan for the independence of Kosovo.

The cable was sent by Daniel Fried, a US State Department official, in May 2007 and quoted Milorad Dodik as stating that "Kosovo's recognition would follow after such a decision by the UN Security Council".

In May 2011, Milorad Dodik planned to have a referendum held in June that he viewed would reflect on the rejection of Bosnian state institutions, including the war crimes court.

On 25 October 2011, Milorad Dodik spoke on "An American Foreign Policy Success Story: The Dayton Accords, Republika Srpska and Bosnia's European Integration" at Columbia University.

In October 2012, Milorad Dodik proposed that Bosnia and Herzegovina's unified armed forces be abolished.

On 3 November 2012, Milorad Dodik announced that the government of Republika Srpska would donate an undisclosed amount to help pay for the renovation of Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej's old residence in Belgrade.

On 1 July 2022, Milorad Dodik announced his candidacy in the Republika Srpska general election, running for a third time as president of Republika Srpska.

Milorad Dodik was sworn in as president on 15 November 2022 in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, succeeding Zeljka Cvijanovic.

In March 2023, Republika Srpska under Milorad Dodik's leadership announced or started to adopt a series of laws that would directly violate human rights and freedoms, such as the law on media, non-governmental organizations and the LGBT community.

In 2009, Milorad Dodik stated that the Tuzla massacre was staged and questioned the Markale massacres in Sarajevo.

The Office of the High Representative said Milorad Dodik denied the war crimes committed and stated that "When such skewed facts come from an official in a position of high responsibility, an official who is obliged to uphold the Dayton Peace Accords and cooperate with the Hague Tribunal, then they are particularly irresponsible and undermine not only the institutions responsible for upholding the rule of law, but the credibility of the individual himself".

Milorad Dodik stated in an interview with the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje novosti in April 2010 that "we cannot and will never accept qualifying that event as a genocide", and disowned the 2004 Republika Srpska report which had acknowledged the scale of the killing and had apologised to the relatives of the victims, claiming that the report had been adopted because of pressure from the international community.

On 12 July 2010, at the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Milorad Dodik declared that he acknowledges the killings that happened on the site, but does not regard what happened at Srebrenica as genocide, differing from the conclusions of the ICTY and of the International Court of Justice, stating that, "f a genocide happened then it was committed against Serb people of this region where women, children and the elderly were killed en masse," referring to eastern Bosnia.

In December 2010, Milorad Dodik condemned the Peace Implementation Council, an international community of 55 countries, for referring to the Srebrenica massacre as genocide.

Milorad Dodik used variety of claims, espoused by other deniers and conspiracy theorists, such as that Srebrenica was, in fact, revenge for the 1993 Kravica attack and other alleged Bosnian Muslim crimes against Serbs.

Milorad Dodik's nephew is Bosnian businessman and football administrator Vico Zeljkovic.