Milorad Dodik

Milorad Dodik (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад Додик, pronounced [mîloraːd dǒdik]; born 12 March 1959) is a Bosnian Serb politician serving as the 8th president of Republika Srpska since 2022, having previously served from 2010 to 2018. He also served as the 7th Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2018 to 2022. Dodik has also been serving as the president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) since its creation in 1996, and has occupied a number of political positions in Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dodik was the prime minister of Republika Srpska from 1998 to 2001 and from 2006 to 2010. Much like the SNSD, Dodik was initially considered as a moderate and reformist alternative to the ultranationalist Serb Democratic Party in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since then, Dodik and the SNSD have pursued an increasingly-Serbian nationalist and separatist line, invoking the right of the Bosnian Serbs to self-determination. His time in power has been characterised by accusations of authoritarianism from opponents, repudiation of federal Bosnian institutions, and closer connections to both Russia and Serbia. In addition to claiming that the Srebrenica massacre was a "fabricated myth", Dodik has denied that the Bosnian genocide happened and has continually praised convicted war criminals Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić.