{"id":174493,"date":"2025-04-03T18:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T16:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=174493"},"modified":"2025-04-03T18:26:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T16:26:21","slug":"rod-blagojevich-has-a-new-job-the-former-illinois-governor-will-work-for-dodikheres-his-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/rod-blagojevich-has-a-new-job-the-former-illinois-governor-will-work-for-dodikheres-his-task\/","title":{"rendered":"ROD BLAGOJEVICH HAS A NEW JOB: The former Illinois governor will work for Dodik\u2014here\u2019s his task!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rod Blagojevich, who was <strong>pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump<\/strong> in February this year, has agreed to <strong>work as a lobbyist for Republika Srpska<\/strong>, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;We will provide support in communication and public affairs on behalf of Republika Srpska,&#8221;<\/strong> stated <strong>RRB Strategies<\/strong>, Blagojevich\u2019s firm, in a <strong>registration filing<\/strong> required under the <strong>Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a unique political entity due to the <strong>Dayton Agreement of 1995.<\/strong> Speaking to <strong>Politico<\/strong>, Blagojevich expressed his hope that he can <strong>&#8220;use all his abilities to convince decision-makers to reconsider the Dayton Agreement and align it with today&#8217;s realities.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As he begins this <strong>new role<\/strong>, Blagojevich is presenting himself as part of a broader movement of <strong>populist leaders<\/strong> who have been targeted by <strong>&#8220;nonpartisan bureaucrats who have exceeded their constitutional power&#8221;<\/strong>, drawing comparisons between himself, Trump, and <strong>Marine Le Pen in France<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;I believe that the political weaponization we now see from the European Union against certain populist political leaders they dislike actually began with me, as a left-of-center Democratic governor of Illinois,&#8221;<\/strong> Blagojevich said, adding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;I just know this to be true. And then they took it to the next level and applied it to President Trump.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dodik<\/strong> has long advocated for the <strong>secession of Republika Srpska from Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/strong> and its <strong>unification with Serbia.<\/strong> In February, he was <strong>sentenced to one year in prison<\/strong> for <strong>violating decisions of the country\u2019s Constitutional Court<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March, <strong>U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/strong> condemned <strong>Dodik\u2019s actions<\/strong>, stating on <strong>X (formerly Twitter)<\/strong> that <strong>he was undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina\u2019s institutions and jeopardizing its security and stability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blagojevich was <strong>pardoned by Trump in February<\/strong> after being <strong>convicted in 2011 for extortion and attempting to sell or trade the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama<\/strong>. He and Trump first met through the reality TV show <strong>&#8220;The Celebrity Apprentice.&#8221;<\/strong> In <strong>2020, Trump commuted Blagojevich\u2019s sentence.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#d21414\" class=\"has-inline-color\">FIND OUT MORE IN ENGLISH:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fserbiantimes%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0xrVWSkze6SiZLeigoNBwpBBrur8yGyevY9cHuPvUM2HhX3Rsk2KGpouwLdbazcunl&#038;show_text=true&#038;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"538\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump had <strong>considered appointing Blagojevich as U.S. ambassador to Serbia<\/strong> before ultimately selecting <strong>former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich<\/strong> for the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blagojevich, whose parents were of <strong>Serbian origin<\/strong> (his father from a <strong>village near Kragujevac<\/strong> and his mother from a <strong>village in Herzegovina<\/strong>), emphasized his extensive experience <strong>working with Balkan politicians<\/strong>. As a <strong>Democratic congressman in 1999<\/strong>, he traveled to <strong>Belgrade with Baptist minister Jesse Jackson<\/strong> during the <strong>NATO bombing of Yugoslavia<\/strong> to negotiate the <strong>release of three American prisoners of war<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;I believe that the Republic of Serbia and Republika Srpska can be bastions of Judeo-Christian values in the Balkans, just as Israel is in the Middle East. I would love to play a role in that, and I am happy to have been brought in and engaged to do exactly that,&#8221;<\/strong> Blagojevich stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#d21414\" class=\"has-inline-color\">MORE TOPICS:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/marin-le-pen-osudjena-za-proneveru-preti-joj-5-godina-zatvora-i-zabrana-vrsenja-javne-funkcije\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">MARINE LE PEN CONVICTED OF EMBEZZLEMENT: She faces 5 years in prison and a ban from holding public office!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/interview-duricko-the-glory-and-misery-of-my-hollywood-will-i-return-to-serbia-and-why-i-support-the-students-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">INTERVIEW, \u0110URI\u010cKO: The glory and misery of my Hollywood \u2013 will I return to Serbia and why I support the students (VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/dokovic-denied-100th-title-by-his-idols-student-mensik-19-overcomes-his-mentor-in-miami-final-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">\u0110OKOVI\u0106 DENIED 100TH TITLE BY HIS IDOL\u2019S STUDENT: Men\u0161ik (19) Overcomes His Mentor in Miami Final! (VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/they-are-already-preparing-a-welcome-members-of-the-european-parliament-want-to-host-students-who-are-coming-to-strasbourg-by-bicycle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">THEY ARE ALREADY PREPARING A WELCOME: Members of the European Parliament want to host students who are coming to Strasbourg by bicycle!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/proglasena-vanredna-situacija-u-banjaluci-vise-od-130-klizista-i-odrona-aktivirano-na-podrucju-grada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN BANJA LUKA: More than 130 landslides and rockslides activated in the city area!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source<\/strong>: Telegraf, <strong>Foto<\/strong>: Tanjug<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rod Blagojevich, who was pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump in February this year, has agreed to work as a lobbyist for Republika Srpska, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. &#8220;We will provide support in communication and public affairs on behalf of Republika Srpska,&#8221; stated RRB Strategies, Blagojevich\u2019s firm, in a registration filing required under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":174494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[71,5406,218,592,22,23,113],"class_list":["post-174493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-balkan","tag-amerika","tag-lobiranje","tag-milorad-dodik","tag-republika-srpska","tag-rod-blagojevic","tag-sad","tag-srbija","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174517,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174493\/revisions\/174517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}