The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on a kleptocratic ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was removed this month as president of the Serb territory within Bosnia and Herzegovina for chipping away at the US-brokered peace deal that ended bloody ethnic violence in the Balkans in the 1990s.
The waiving of sanctions on Milorad Dodik followed a months-long lobbying effort by allies of Donald Trump, which painted the Serb nationalist leader as a defender of “Christian values” in a country with a large Muslim population, and a victim of the sort of “lawfare” waged against the US president.
Dodik had been sanctioned by the US for flouting the Dayton Peace Agreement, which was…
