Rod Blagojevich has a new gig: Working for the 'Bosnian Bear'
Rod Blagojevich has a new job: representing the interests of an ultranationalist politician known as the “Bosnian Bear” who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The former Illinois governor, who was pardoned in February by President Donald Trump, has agreed to lobby on behalf of the Republic of Srpska, a Serb-majority territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina long mired in the bitter ethnic tensions of the region.
RRB Strategies, Blagojevich’s firm, “will provide communications and public affairs support on behalf of the Republic of Srpska,” according to the registration statement he was required to file under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is held together by the Dayton Accords, a 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian War and unified the country. Blagojevich told POLITICO on Wednesday that he hopes to “use whatever ability I have to persuade the decision-makers that we need to take another look at the Dayton Agreement and bring it in line with the realities of today.”
As he begins the role, Blagojevich is seeking to cast himself as one in a long line of populist leaders thwarted by “unelected bureaucrats who have exceeded their constitutional power,” from Trump to Marine Le Pen in France and Milorad Dodik, Srpska’s president
“I believe the weaponization that’s going on in Europe right now by the European Union against certain populist political leaders they don’t like started with me as a left of center Democratic governor in Illinois,” Blagojevich said. “I just know this. And then they took it to the next level and did it to President Trump.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/rod-blagojevich-has-a-new-gig-working-for-the-bosnian-bear-00267858
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