As the United States and Europe condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Saša Božić responded by opening "Café Putin" in Banja Luka, decorating it with a figure of the Russian president - about 30 cm taller than Vladimir Putin is in real life, writes the "New York Times".
Today, while much of Europe is horrified by US President Donald Trump's attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Bozic has a new project: a motel and restaurant complex called "Trump and Putin's Place." He plans to open it this summer, according to the American newspaper.
The tributes to Trump and Putin, Božić said, are not political - just a "marketing ploy" that works in Banja Luka. Since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, many in the city and surrounding area have viewed Russia favorably and with hostility the American-led order in Europe that Trump seems intent on undoing, the Times reports.
A cafe named after Biden, Božić believes, would never work, much less a restaurant named after Zelensky, but that's why "everyone here loves Putin and Trump."
The New York Times points out that Republika Srpska emerged from the ethnic cleansing of the Balkan wars of the early 1990s and that this violence shattered hopes that the fall of communism would usher in a new era of prosperity and harmony.
“It gave an early indication of the appeal and destructive power of ethno-nationalism, a force that is now resurgent around the world,” says the article’s author, Andrew Higgins.
"The Serbian region has felt excluded for decades, and a victim of what it sees as a hostile American-dominated world order, which is, at least in principle, committed to human rights, democracy and territorial integrity."
Many ethnic Serbs viewed Russia as a protector against the West, which intervened militarily during the 1992-95 war to help Bosnia's Muslim population, and then again in 1998 to end Serbian control of Kosovo, Higgins recalls.
Serbs inside Serbia, as well as those outside its borders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, still harbor bitter memories of the NATO bombings of the 1990s. Now, many believe that things have changed with the return of President Trump.
“Trump’s America is different,” said Mladen Ivanić, a former prime minister of RS. While he opposes the entity’s ethno-nationalist leadership, he hopes the new administration in Washington will be more understanding of Serb concerns. But he also sees turmoil ahead.
"We now live in a new world where anything is possible, even a conflict between America and Europe. I never thought that was possible," Ivanić said.
He added that he believes “Trump has no interest in the Balkans,” but his upending of long-held assumptions about what the United States stands for “changed everything.”
The Times writes that this change has horrified former communist countries that, thanks to Washington's hostility towards Moscow during the Cold War, are considered loyal American allies.
Vytautas Landsbergis, the former leader of Lithuania who led his Baltic nation, then still a Soviet republic, to independence in 1990, described Trump's clash with Zelensky as a gross betrayal.
"They invited a guest, beat him, spat on him and threw him out the door. What happened in Washington is an extremely low level that has never been seen before," Landsbergis said.
Lech Walesa, the former leader of the Solidarity union in Poland and a global symbol of resistance to tyranny, joined former political prisoners in sending a letter to Trump on Monday expressing "horror and disgust" at his intimidation of Zelensky, saying it reminded them of their encounters with arrogant communist-era officials.
For those who see the United States as a bully rather than a liberator, the prospect of Washington turning its back on old beliefs was greeted with enthusiasm, Higgins says.
He says Dodik is eagerly fishing in the murky waters stirred up by Trump. He recalls that the RS leader praised the Oval Office clash with Zelensky, who was trying to correct Trump's interpretations of the causes of the war in Ukraine, as a triumph of "truth" over "fairy tales."
Hoping that Washington would side with him against the central government of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, Dodik recently hosted Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and former Trump lawyer, in Banja Luka.
Giuliani arrived shortly before a BiH court convicted Dodik of disrespecting the decisions of an international official overseeing the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Dodik, who has long embraced Russia as his protector, is now seeking help from Washington, the Times reported, adding that Dodik wrote in a message to Giuliani: "You and President Trump understand better than anyone the ruthless nature of the deep state and how far they will go in their attacks on political opponents."
The visit didn’t go entirely according to plan, though. Giuliani portrayed Bosnia as a threatening hotbed of Islamic extremism and wore a MAGA-style cap that read “Make Srpska Great Again.” But, Higgins says, he inadvertently offended his host by calling him a “Bosnian.”
The day after Giuliani attended a rally of Dodik's supporters, a court in Sarajevo sentenced the RS president to a year in prison and a six-year ban on holding public office.
Dodik's attempt to get closer to Washington, believes Damir Kapidžić, a professor of political science at the University of Sarajevo, is motivated by his desire to avoid prison and have US sanctions lifted.
"He's backed up against a wall. He's hoping the uncertainty that Trump has brought into the world will help him," he said.
Kapidžić said that this uncertainty does not bode well for the fragile order in the Balkans, whose stability depends on US cooperation with European countries.
A return to war, he points out, is highly unlikely - too many young people capable of fighting have gone abroad, and there are no large stockpiles of weapons like there were when Yugoslavia broke up.
However, Kapidžić said, BiH risks a destabilizing struggle for influence among external powers, including Russia, China and Turkey, “if the Trump administration decides to completely abandon its support for the multilateralism that ended the Balkan wars.”
Aleksandar Trifunović, editor-in-chief of the Banja Luka-based portal Buka, agrees that a return to the violence of the 1990s is unlikely, although there were threats against the judge who handed down the verdict against Dodik.
More worrying, in his view, is the collapse of the norms that held BiH together as a state, albeit a very dysfunctional one. Last week, Dodik threatened Serbs who remain working in BiH state institutions that they would be declared “permanent traitors.”
"We will hang their names on plaques wherever we can, in the media and everywhere. We will not tolerate betrayal," he said.
Aleksandar Trifunović says a return to the violence of the 1990s is unlikely and that what is more worrying is the collapse of the norms that held BiH together as a state.
Trifunović believes that Dodik was encouraged by President Trump's campaign against the "deep state", especially the dismantling of USAID, and by Elon Musk, who without evidence labeled this aid agency a "criminal organization".
“That is very dangerous,” said Trifunović, adding that he has never received any grants from USAID, but Dodik still accuses him of being part of a group of “criminals” who are using American money “to destroy Republika Srpska and Milorad Dodik.”
Draško Stanivuković, the opposition mayor of Banja Luka, said he disagrees with Dodik on many things, but shares the hope that Trump will help Serbs protect their identity and territory.
"We're all cheering for Trump here. Liberal values have ruled the world for too long," he said.
Tanja Topić, a Banja Luka political analyst, said that the increasingly aggressive mood reminds her of the 1990s.
"There are the same toxic narratives, the same people, but fortunately this time there are no weapons. Politicians like Dodik "don't like rules and have placed a big bet on Trump," Topić said.
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