London — The involvement of a small American firm linked to associates of President Trump in an energy project in Bosnia and Herzegovina worth more than $1.5 billion has raised questions about how the White House could be using its leverage in the fragile Balkan state. U.S. lawmakers accuse the Trump administration of lifting sanctions on Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik in an effort to enrich and empower allies of Mr. Trump, and of undermining longstanding U.S. foreign policy interests in the region in the process.
Trump was hailed by Dodik after his Serb nationalist party won one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's three presidency seats, which are split between Bosnia's Muslim minority, known as Bosniaks, as well as Serb and Croat ethnic groups under the country's complex power-sharing electoral system. "If it had not been for Donald Trump's magnificent victory … we would probably be political corpses today," Dodik told supporters in a speech, in which he also thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support. AAFS Infrastructure & Energy, a company incorporated in the U.S. last year and headed by President Trump's former personal attorney Jesse Binnall and Joseph Flynn, the brother of Trump ally General Michael Flynn, is close to securing a contract to develop the Southern Interconnection Gas Pipeline.
The pipeline project has been discussed by Bosnian officials for years, but long opposed by Dodik, who has close ties with the Kremlin. But Dodik, whose party has veto power in Bosnia's parliament, said he would not stand in the way of the proposal following the announcement of AAFS' involvement last April. Six months earlier, the Trump administration lifted sanctions against Dodik that were imposed by the U.S.
Treasury almost a decade ago. The pipeline would connect Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia's gas network, allowing Bosnia to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its neighbors. The project, which is valued at around $1.7 billion according to the Croatian government, would help make Bosnia and Herzegovina less reliant on Russian gas imports.
On its website, AAFS describes itself as a company focused on "energy security, project structuring, capital alignment, and long-term regional infrastructure development." The company does not appear to have demonstrable experience in any similar energy projects. The secessionist leader Dodik, who until recently served as the president of Bosnia's self-governing, Serb-run territory called Republika Srpska, has long been accused of undermining the U.S. brokered Dayton Accords, which ended the bloody sectarian violence between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia in the 1990s. The sanctions, which included asset freezes and visa bans, were imposed by the Obama administration in 2017.
The Biden administration then imposed further sanctions in 2022, accusing Dodik of corruption, including the charge that he had handed government contracts to close business associates in Republika Srpska. A congressional report published last month by House Democrats, titled "Pay for Play in the Balkans," alleges that those two decisions — the removal of sanctions on Dodik and his decision to not oppose the pipeline — are directly linked. "The Trump administration has used its diplomatic influence and connections with shady characters like Michael Flynn … to facilitate the concession contract for the SIC [Southern Interconnection Gas pipeline] to AAFS Infrastructure and Energy LLC, a company owned and operated by Michael Flynn's brother Joseph Flynn and Trump-affiliated lawyer and political activist Jesse Binnall," the report alleges.
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