Milorad Dodik (, ; born 12 March 1959) is a Bosnian Serb politician who served as president of Republika Srpska from 2022 until his removal from office in 2025. Having previously held the office from 2010 to 2018, he also served as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2018 to 2022.
Dodik has been the president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) since its formation in 1996 and has held several political offices within Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served as the prime minister of Republika Srpska from 1998 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2010.
In February 2025, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Dodik to one year's imprisonment and forbade him from political activity for six years due to defying decisions by the High Representative. The verdict was confirmed in August 2025. The one-year prison sentence was subsequently commuted to a fine. On 18 August, Dodik's appeal was rejected and his mandate as president was officially terminated, with the termination date marked as 12 June 2025. The National Assembly of Republika Srpska initially disputed this decision, but ultimately accepted it in October 2025.
Initially, both Dodik and the SNSD were viewed as moderate and reformist alternatives to the ultranationalist Serb Democratic Party during the 1990s and early 2000s. However, since then, both Dodik and the SNSD have adopted a more Serbian nationalist and separatist stance, advocating for the right of Bosnian Serbs to self-determination. His tenure has been marked by accusations of authoritarianism from his critics, the undermining of federal Bosnian institutions, and closer ties with both Russia and Serbia.
Early life and education Dodik was born in Banja Luka to Bogoljub and Mira Dodik. He lived in Laktaši, where he attended elementary school. There, he played on the town's basketball team in Yugoslavia's amateur league. In 1978, he graduated from an agricultural high school in Banja Luka, after which he entered the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Belgrade, where he graduated in 1983.
Early political career From 1986 through 1990, Dodik was the chairman of the executive board of the Municipal Assembly of Laktaši. In 1990, at the first multi-party elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was elected to the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a candidate of the Union of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia and was a political disciple of liberal reformer Ante Marković. During the Bosnian War, Dodik served as a representative in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska.
During that time, he formed the Independent Members of Parliament Caucus (Клуб независних посланика у Народној Скупштини Републике Српске, Klub nezavisnih poslanika u Narodnoj Skupštini Republike Srpske), which was the only political opposition to the Serb Democratic Party (Српска демократска странка, Srpska demokratska stranka) and its allies, which held the absolute majority in the wartime parliament of the Republika Srpska. The caucus he chaired was to form the core of the Party of Independent Social Democrats (Stranka nezavisnih socijaldemokrata, or SNSD) in 1996, after the peace was signed as a result of the Dayton Agreement. He was elected as the first President of SNSD. The party later united with another social-democratic party to form the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, of which Dodik is president.
Prime Minister of Republika Srpska First term (1998–2001)
After conflicts between Biljana Plavšić with the rest of Radovan Karadžić's Serb Democratic Party (SDS), she founded a new political party, the Serb National Alliance (SNS). Early elections in Republika Srpska were held in 1997, after which Plavšić and her SNS closely cooperated with the smaller Serb socialist parties (Socialist Party and Dodik's SNSD). Dodik was nominated Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, even though his party had only two seats in the National Assembly.
Second term (2006–2010)
During the campaign for the 2006 general election, following Montenegrin independence, Dodik said that Republika Srpska didn't rule out its right to an independence referendum. At the election, Dodik's SNSD won 46.9% percent of votes, while the SDS won 19.5%. The international community saw him as a moderate democratic leader of Republika Srpska. Dodik had support from Western countries that were seeking to marginalise the Serbian nationalists. They believed that they had found an alternative in Dodik. After he became the prime minister, the West continued to support him at the expense of Serb nationalist parties. The Western countries promised that, if Dodik remains the prime minister, Republika Srpska would receive Western economic assistance. The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western powers also wanted to ensure that he realised his promise to return 70,000 Croat and Bosniak refugees to Republika Srpska.
As promised, after Dodik won the election, Republika Srpska received financial aid from the European Union, that money was used to pay salaries for civil servants and the police. In mid-February 2007, Dodik travelled to the United States, where he was received by Madeleine Albright. She described him as "a breath of fresh air" and pledged €3.6 million of immediate aid. Republika Srpska also received aid from the British government in the same month. British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, said in front of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska that Dodik's government "did more in its first two weeks to improve the lives of the people than its predecessor did in two years."Serbia Under Milošević: Politics in the 1990s, Robert Thomas, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1999, page 377
Later, Dodik became the most powerful Serb politician in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the West viewed him as "an unabashed nationalist and the greatest threat to Bosnia and Herzegovina's fragile, multiethnic peace." After he became a prime minister, Dodik became even more nationalist than the SDS. During a police reform in Republika Srpska, Dodik managed to create a nationalist profile for himself. Haris Silajdžić, meanwhile, won election for Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As he was a minister during the Bosnian War and close associate of Alija Izetbegović, Silajdžić criticised Republika Srpska as a genocidal entity and called for its abolition. Moreover, Silajdžić advocated further centralisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On 5 May 2008, Dodik and Serbian President Boris Tadić inaugurated the Park Republika Srpska in Belgrade.
On 1 June 2008, during a visit to Zagreb, 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 Mesić criticised Dodik for encouraging dissatisfied Serbs in Croatia to live in Republika Srpska while neglecting to invite Bosniak and Croat refugees to return. Ivo Banac, president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, stated that Croatia had been defending itself at the time, and criticized Dodik's comments as provocations.
On 12 December 2008, Dodik stated that Muslim judges should not be allowed to preside over cases in Republika Srpska. He elaborated that "it is unacceptable for RS that Muslim judges try us and throw out complaints that are legally founded. And we think that it is only because they are Muslims, Bosniaks and that they have a negative orientation towards the RS, and we see the conspiracy that has been created." Dodik's comments were condemned as "extremely chauvinistic" by international institutions, the United States Embassy in Sarajevo and other officials.
On 9 September 2009, he and Boris Tadić, President of Serbia, opened a school in Pale with the name "Serbia". Bosniak and Croat members of the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina were not consulted about Tadić's trip.
On 27 October 2009, Dodik provided a Republika Srpska government jet to pick up Biljana Plavšić, former president of Republika Srpska convicted of war crimes, and welcomed her to Belgrade after her early release from a Swedish prison. He cited "purely moral reasons" for doing so. Željko Komšić, Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency, cancelled a planned visit to Sweden in protest.
In November 2009, 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. He stated that the court had no jurisdiction over Republika Srpska and filed a lawsuit against Deputy High Representative Raffi Gregorian and international prosecutors. 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, Dodik revealed that he seriously considered giving Biljana Plavšić an office in the Senate. He stated, "We are working on revising the law on the President of the Republic, which would award Plavšić, and other former presidents, the opportunity to enjoy some privileges like the office, monetary compensation, counsellor, secretary, official car with a driver and so forth." Mladen Bosić, leader of the Serb Democratic Party, criticized Dodik.
On 19 January 2010, Croatian president Stjepan Mesić stated that if Dodik were to call a referendum for independence for Republika Srpska, he would send the Croatian military to intervene.
Presidency (2018–2022) 2018 general election
Dodik announced his candidacy in the Bosnian general election on 26 December 2017, running for Bosnia's three-person Presidency member, representing the Serbs.
At the general election held on 7 October 2018, Dodik was elected to the Presidency, having obtained 53.88% of the vote. The incumbent Bosnian Serb presidency member Mladen Ivanić, was second with 42.74%.
Domestic policy
During the first month of his presidency, quarrels transpired between Dodik and Bosniak member Šefik Džaferović, with the former stating he would not attend the first Presidency session under the new leadership until the flag of Republika Srpska was put in his office. Dodik eventually relented, agreeing to hold the session with only the national flag.
In March 2019, Dodik appointed acclaimed filmmaker Emir Kusturica as his advisor.
On 28 January 2021, the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported Dodik to the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina for spreading national hatred. He 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.
In May 2021, Džaferović and Croat Presidency member Željko Komšić attended a joint military exercise with the United States Army, while Dodik refused.