BELGRADE (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, the US Department of the Treasury announced that the United States has sanctioned Dodik for blocking the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords. The sanctions froze Dodik’s assets that are subject to US jurisdiction and generally prohibited citizens of the United States from doing business with him.
"It is important that the sanctions were imposed on me personally and not on Republika Srpska. I am proud of it, because it means that even under heavy pressure I didn't trade Republika Srpska’s interests," Dodik said during a press conference as broadcast by Radio Televizija Republike Srpske.
He added that he had no assets in the United States and that the sanctions introduced against him would change nothing for the citizens of Republica Srpska. Dodik also expressed hope to have "more successful" cooperation with the new US administration.
Bosnia and Herzegovina succeeded from Yugoslavia in 1992 against the wishes of the local Serbs there, prompting a bloody civil war and foreign intervention that ended in 1995 with US-brokered peace accord in Dayton, Ohio. The accord aims to promote peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to defend the regional balance between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska.
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