The Ministry for European Integration and International Cooperation of Republika Srpska has rejected a request from Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) to disclose the contract signed between the Republika Srpska Government and Chris LaCivita and James Blair, two associates of US President Donald Trump. According to reporting by The New York Times, the two received several hundred thousand dollars each for providing election-related advice, in a case that has become the focus of a major political controversy in the United States. Since these services were paid for with public funds, TI BiH believes that the Republika Srpska authorities must explain to the public exactly what kind of election-related advice was purchased with taxpayers’ money.
Other contracts available through the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) registry reveal that lobbying conducted in the name of representing Republika Srpska also extends to protecting the interests of Milorad Dodik, his family and his business network. The presence of US consultants at an SNSD campaign rally raises further questions: Were taxpayers also financing a political party’s election campaign, alongside efforts to protect private interests? And have Republika Srpska institutions continued activities that violate a ruling of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Given the international attention surrounding the case and the legitimate public interest in understanding what election-related advice the Republika Srpska authorities purchased with taxpayers’ money, TI BiH submitted a request more than a month ago to the Ministry for European Integration and International Cooperation of Republika Srpska, which is responsible for implementing these contracts.
In its response, signed by Minister Zlatan Klokić, the Ministry refused to provide either the requested contract or information about its cost, claiming that the documents contained confidential information subject to classified information protection and special access restrictions.
The Ministry’s response did not identify the specific legal provisions justifying its refusal to disclose information that should be publicly accessible. Furthermore, despite the clear requirements of the applicable Freedom of Information legislation, the Ministry failed to adequately explain how it had assessed the public interest in disclosure or identify the specific harm that releasing the information would cause.
While the Ministry continues to withhold information about this particular engagement, other contracts publicly available through the US FARA registry offer insight into what is being negotiated in the name of Republika Srpska and the extent to which these activities serve Dodik’s political position, his family and his business network.
Four Million Dollars for Independence and the Protection of Dodik’s Network
One such example is a contract with the Canadian firm Dickens & Madson, signed on 6 September 2025, which explicitly identifies the independence of Republika Srpska as its ultimate objective on the very first page.
The agreement was signed by Mladen Filipović, head of the Republika Srpska Representative Office in Vienna, and Ari Ben-Menashe on behalf of the firm. The initial fee of $2 million was subsequently increased through two amendments worth $1 million each, bringing the total contracted amount to $4 million.
The agreement provides for lobbying members of the US executive and legislative branches, the US Department of the Treasury and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as representatives of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and the United Nations.
Among its objectives are securing international support for Republika Srpska, reaffirming Milorad Dodik’s legitimacy, removing Christian Schmidt from the position of High Representative, and seeking the cancellation of the elections scheduled for 23 November 2025. Those elections were called following a court judgment that barred Dodik from serving as President of Republika Srpska.
The contract also envisages lobbying for the removal of sanctions against Dodik, members of his family, associated businesses, friends and political allies, as well as individuals involved in organising Republika Srpska Day celebrations and persons and entities identified as part of his financial network.
By October 2025, $3 million had already been paid, while no information is available on whether the remaining contracted $1 million was subsequently disbursed.
The removal of sanctions against Dodik and his family also features prominently in the lobbying plan of RRB Strategies, a firm associated with Rod Blagojevich, which signed an agreement with Minister Klokić in March 2025.
Other stated objectives include promoting Republika Srpska’s “right to self-determination”, removing the Office of the High Representative (OHR), and initiating legal proceedings against Christian Schmidt.
The cost of this engagement cannot be established because the fee has been redacted in the publicly available version of the contract. What remains visible, however, is the communication strategy intended to influence US audiences.
It includes a campaign portraying Dodik as a victim of alleged political persecution and advocating the “protection of Christians from pressure by Bosnian Muslims and their globalist allies.”
Beyond providing an ideological foundation that aligns the Republika Srpska leadership’s messaging with themes promoted by the MAGA movement, this approach seeks to reframe a political dispute in Bosnia and Herzegovina within a broader international and ideological confrontation.
Similar objectives appear in the registration documents of GS2 Law, where initial legal advisory services and challenges to measures imposed on Republika Srpska and certain individuals are accompanied by the possibility of approaching the US State Department with claims of religious persecution and the suppression of Judeo-Christian values.
The initial two-month engagement carried a contracted fee of $100,000.
Natural Resources Also Enter the Negotiations
On 29 October 2025, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed Dodik and a number of associated individuals and entities from its sanctions list. Nevertheless, lobbying engagements continued into the following year.
A 2026 agreement between the Republika Srpska Ministry and Zell & Associates, signed by Minister Klokić and L. Marc Zell, calls for a public reassessment of the Dayton Peace Agreement in the United States, particularly Annex 10, which governs the role of the High Representative.
The agreement advocates the immediate abolition of the Bonn Powers, a deadline for the permanent closure of the OHR, and the gradual withdrawal of EUFOR from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Alongside efforts to reshape the international political and security framework, the contract also envisages stronger economic relations with the United States. It specifically refers to joint exploration of mineral resources, particularly rare minerals.
Although the document does not award any concession or identify a specific project or investor, it demonstrates how Republika Srpska’s natural resources, particularly its mineral wealth, have become part of the same framework of cooperation through which political support for the entity’s leadership is being sought.
Meanwhile, the public has not been informed who would negotiate over these resources, under what conditions, or how the public interest would be protected.
Zell’s engagement also includes legal advice, the promotion of English-language content, primarily on the social media platform X, and cooperation with influencers expected to help achieve the agreed communication objectives.
However, the fees and expenses associated with this contract have also been redacted.
Another publicly available agreement shows that Becker & Poliakoff was engaged as an intermediary to promote dialogue with the Trump administration and encourage a reassessment of the Dayton Agreement, particularly Annex 10.
The initial fee was set at $40,000 per month, or $280,000 over seven months.
Across the eight principal arrangements reviewed for 2025 and 2026 for which fees were disclosed, the known base contractual fees amount to $9.37 million. This figure does not represent the final cost of these activities: the agreements cover different periods, some fees have been redacted, and contracted amounts do not necessarily correspond to payments already made.
| Firm | Date or contractual period | Contracted base fee (USD) | Signatories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dickens & Madson Canada | 6 September 2025; two amendments; two years | $4,000,000 | Mladen Filipović and Ari Ben-Menashe |
| Global Strategy Advisors | 1 March 2025 – 28 February 2026 | $960,000 | Mladen Filipović and Duško Jovičić |
| GS2 Law | Engagement letter dated 30 July 2025; two months | $100,000 | Zlatan Klokić and Robert Garson |
| RRB Strategies | 27 March 2025; initial 12-month term | Redacted | Zlatan Klokić and Rod Blagojevich |
| McGinnis Lochridge | 1 January – 31 December 2026 | $1,560,000 | Zlatan Klokić and Martin T. Lutz |
| Zell & Associates | 1 January – 31 December 2026 | Redacted | Zlatan Klokić and L. Marc Zell |
| Lucas Compton | 1 January – 31 December 2026 | $480,000 | Zlatan Klokić and Travis Lucas |
| Continental Strategy | February 2026; 12 months | $420,000 | Zlatan Klokić and Carlos Trujillo |
| CRB Global / CRB Tactic Global (contracting entity) | Agreement dated 1 February 2026; 11 months | $1,100,000 | Zlatan Klokić and Barry Bennett |
| DCI Group AZ | 24 February – 31 December 2026 | $750,000 | Zlatan Klokić and Justin Peterson |
| Stokes Strategies — subcontract | From 1 April 2025; initial three months | $195,000 | Paul D. Hatch on behalf of SSC and Spencer Stokes |
| Becker & Poliakoff — Zell subcontract | 1 March – 1 October 2025 | $280,000 | L. Marc Zell and Chris Berardini |
| Schifanelli Law — legal services for the Representative Office | 9 September 2023 | $8,000 | Drina Vlastelić Rajić; firm’s signature line left blank |
| Bosnian American Alliance — Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH | 28 March 2025; one year | No fee | Visible signature of Elmedin Konaković; Almas Šehić named as representative |
Who Are the American Consultants Really Advising?
Republika Srpska institutions possess information about the amounts contracted, payments made and services delivered. By withholding this information, they are preventing the public from establishing how much public money has been spent on representing Republika Srpska’s institutional interests and how much has been directed towards protecting the interests of Dodik, his family and his associates.
The documented presence of Alex Garcia of Continental Strategy, James Blair and attorney Andrew H. Smith at an SNSD election rally raises another important question: Did publicly funded consulting arrangements also cover services provided to a political party’s election campaign?
Disclosure of the contracts concluded with US lobbying and consulting firms, together with reports detailing the services actually performed, would help clarify these concerns and establish whether public funds were used for partisan political purposes.
An even more significant issue concerns the constitutionality of these activities.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has prohibited payments from the Republika Srpska budget associated with the Dickens & Madson contract, as well as payments under other agreements involving lobbying for objectives contrary to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Court’s decisions and the decisions of state institutions.
By refusing to disclose the requested information to TI BiH, the Ministry is preventing public scrutiny of whether the contractual arrangements with Blair and LaCivita fall within the scope of the Constitutional Court’s prohibition, and whether Republika Srpska institutions and representative offices have continued to commission and finance activities that violate the constitutional order.
The central question therefore remains unanswered: How much taxpayers’ money has been spent, what services were actually delivered, and whose interests were those services intended to serve?
