Milorad Dodik
Milorad Dodik was born on March 12, 1959, in Banja Luka.
He completed his primary education in Laktaši and secondary education in Banja Luka. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Belgrade.
From 1986 to 1990, as the youngest official in the former SFRY, he held several important positions in the Municipality of Laktaši, including the position of President of the Executive Board of the Municipality.
In the first multiparty elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990, he was elected to the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the list of the Alliance of Reform Forces. Due to disagreements with the ruling structure at the time in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, he formed the Club of Independent MPs, which in 1996 was the nucleus for the formation of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, of which he has been the president since its founding in 1996.
He was re-elected to the National Assembly of Republika Srpska as a member of parliament in 1997, and a year later, in 1998, he was elected as the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska. He held this position until January 2001.
He was re-elected as a member of parliament for the SNSD in 2002, and he served in that capacity until 2006, when he again assumed the position of Prime Minister of Republika Srpska for the second time in February. He became the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska for the third time in December of the same year, after the party he leads convincingly won the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He served as the Prime Minister until October 2010, when he received strong support and trust from the voters, and was elected as the President of Republika Srpska. The formal inauguration ceremony of the newly elected President of Republika Srpska took place on November 15, 2010.
After winning the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina on October 12, 2014, he was re-elected as the President of Republika Srpska for the second time in history.
In the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018, he was elected as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After winning the general elections in 2022, he was elected as the President of Republika Srpska for the third time.
Milorad Dodik has received numerous awards and decorations, including the Order of Nemanjić, the Order of the Republic of Srpska on the ribbon, and the Order of St. Peter the Great with the ribbon, awarded by the National Committee for Social Awards of the Russian Federation for outstanding contributions to the promotion of Russian-Serbian cooperation.
For his exceptional merits to the Serbian state and people, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić awarded him the highest recognition of the Republic of Serbia – the Order of the Republic of Serbia with a grand necklace.
The Serbian Orthodox Church awarded him the Order of St. Sava, First Degree, and the Jerusalem Patriarch bestowed upon him the Holy Cross of the Guardian of Christ’s Tomb.
During a visit to Romania, he was awarded the Order of the Temišvar Eparchy for his contribution to the preservation of Serbian interests and connections.
He is an honorary citizen of several cities in Republika Srpska. Milorad Dodik is also a longtime prominent sports official. For over a decade, he was the president of BC “Igokea,” one of its founders, and BC “Partizan” from Belgrade awarded him the title of honorary club president.
He is married, a father of two, and has seven grandchildren.
