Rod Blagojevic has a new job: representing the interests of an ultranationalist politician, known in the US as, as Politiko claims, the "Bosnian Bear".
The former governor of Illinois, who was pardoned in February by President Donald Trump, has agreed to lobby on behalf of Republika Srpska, a Serb-majority territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina that has long been affected by sharp ethnic tensions in the region, Politiko reports.
Blagojevic's firm, RRB Strategies, "will provide communications and public affairs support on behalf of Republika Srpska," Politiko reported, according to a statement it was required to file under the Foreign Agents Registration Law.
Speaking to Politiko on Wednesday, Blagojevic said he hopes to "use all his ability to convince decision-makers that we need to reconsider the Dayton Agreement and bring it into line with today's reality."
As Politiko reports, Blagojevic is trying to portray himself as one in a long line of populist leaders being attacked by "unelected bureaucrats who have overstepped their constitutional authority," from Trump to Marine Le Pen in France and Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska.
"I believe that the fight that is currently going on in Europe by the European Union against certain populist political leaders, which they don't like, started with me as the governor with left-of-center views in Illinois, and then they took it to the next level and did it to President Trump," Blagojevic said.
Dodik has long advocated for Republika Srpska to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and join neighboring Serbia, writes Politiko, and in February he was sentenced to a year in prison for disrespecting the country's Constitutional Court.
Claiming that Dodik is known as the "Bosnian Bear", Politiko recalls that after the conviction, Dodik went to Moscow.
In March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned Dodik for "undermining the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and threatening its security and stability" in a post on the X network.
Politico highlighted Blagojevic's long experience working with Balkan politics. As a Democratic representative in the House of Representatives in 1999, Politico reports, he traveled to Belgrade with Jesse Jackson to broker a deal that freed three American prisoners of war.
"I believe that the Republic of Serbia and Republika Srpska can be bastions of Judeo-Christian values in the Balkans, just like Israel is in the Middle East. I would like to be able to play a role in that and I am happy to be engaged and hired to do just that," Blagojević said, according to Politiko.
Bonus video:
