Recall, the $30 million figure is Dodik's own from 2017. What he has spent trying to influence US officials since then has only grow, even as his positions have become only increasingly more extreme and volatile.

Good the @nytimes sheds light on efforts of Kremlin-backed secessionist regime in Bosnia to hijack US policy in region via $30+ million Dodik has spent lobbying in DC over past decade. In sum, for US to enable Dodik is to invite new conflict in Bosnia.

A day after @vonderleyen's visit to Sarajevo, and after news broke BiH PM Kristo (HDZ) intends to appoint secessionist Dodik's longtime advisor as BiH-EU chief negotiator, a grand coalition of parties in BiH House of Reps, incl RS opposition parties, is countering w/ their own

Croat nationalist PM of BiH to propose as BiH chief negotiator w/ EU Ana Trsic-Babic, long time advisor of Bosnian Serb secessionist Dodik. Her nomination likely key reason for Covic & Dodik’s summit in Banja Luka yesterday. A Dodik cadre should be a non-starter for Sarajevo.

The turmoil in France reminds us: strong legislatures are far superior to strong executives. They too may, at times, produces tumult but they also organically produce their own solutions (at least in the Westminster tradition). A government that cannot pass a budget must fall.

It is always good for high ranking EU officials to travel to Srebrenica, to meditate on the consequences of indifference. Perhaps even to reflect on whether today they are doing the most they can to confront and combat those who still glorify in the genocide in Bosnia.

Despite Bosnian Serb secessionist Dodik having been removed from office, his allies in @Dragan_Covic's Croat sectarian HDZ remain in lockstep, meeting today in Banja Luka re: future coalitions. I've said 1000x: SNSD & HDZ are two wings of the same bloc.

More than 15,000 line the streets of Sarajevo, among dozens of other cities & towns around BiH & the W. Balkans, in a final farewell to Bosnian folk balladeer Halid Bešlić. Very few figures in the region could muster this sort of universal grief. Photo via @klixba.

"Mogućih inicijativa je bezbroj, a razloga da se ne poduzme ništa od navedenog – u to sam uvjeren – također ne manjka. Vlade bi to trebale raditi. Neko drugi će to riješiti. Evropljani će se pobrinuti. Možda će neka američka udovica donirati umjesto nas."

As BiH has “increasingly moved towards the embrace of free market economics, the chief beneficiaries of that transformation have not committed themselves to Carnegie’s Gospel…needed to achieve a broader social transformation”. My latest for @odgovor_ba.

Sports in Serbia have been deeply politicized (by successive nationalist regimes) since at least the 1980s. The fact that it is impossible for a match against an Albanian or Bosnian team or just a side w/ players of that origin to be played in Serbia w/o these kinds of

Sabina Cudic selected as nxt boss of NS bloc in BiH, part of governing Troika coalition. Cudic only woman to currently head major political party in BiH. Early polling ahead of 2026 elxns, however, suggests NS struggling to stay above the elxn threshold.

The imposition of US sanctions vs. Serbia's NIS, the Russian-owned crude oil refiner, are welcome, and hopefully a signal of a broader recalibration of US policy in the region, recognizing that Belgrade has unequivocally sided with the Moscow regime.

This remarkable reporting by @panyiszabolcs, @direkt36 et al only further solidifies why Hungary should no longer be allowed to participate in @euforbih or @NATO_KFOR. The Orban regime is a malign force w/in the EU-NATO, not an ally.

Transparent what happened here: Vucic ran his mouth, Ankara responded behind closed doors but in no uncertain terms. It’s the only language Vucic, Dodik, Covic et al understand. Unfortunately, too few in the key Western capitals have caught on to this elementary fact.