US President Joe Biden signed a text of sanctions on the freezing of property and interests for persons assessed to be acting against the interests of peace, prosperity and European and Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkan countries. The persons in question will also not be issues any form of visa for the duration of sanctions against them.

“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America… I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, hereby expand the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13219 of June 26, 2001 (Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Western Balkans)finding that the situation in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Albania (the Western Balkans), over the past two decades, including the undermining of post-war agreements and institutions following the breakup of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as widespread corruption within various governments and institutions in the Western Balkans, stymies progress toward effective and democratic governance and full integration into transatlantic institutions, and thereby constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the Order preamble said.

President Biden thus ordered that all property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:

(i) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, or territorial integrity of any area or state in the Western Balkans;

(ii) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the Western Balkans;

(iii) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, a violation of, or an act that has obstructed or threatened the implementation of, any regional security, peace, cooperation, or mutual recognition agreement or framework or accountability mechanism related to the Western Balkans, including the Prespa Agreement of 2018; the Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001; United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244; the Dayton Accords; or the Conclusions of the Peace Implementation Conference Council held in London in December 1995, including the decisions or conclusions of the High Representative, the Peace Implementation Council, or its Steering Board; or the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or, with respect to the former Yugoslavia, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals;

(iv) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse in the Western Balkans;

(v) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption related to the Western Balkans, including corruption by, on behalf of, or otherwise related to a government in the Western Balkans, or a current or former government official at any level of government in the Western Balkans, such as the misappropriation of public assets, expropriation of private assets for personal gain or political purposes, or bribery;

(vi) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
(vii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.

The prohibitions apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order.

The Order also prohibits the provision of any form of help or support to such persons by anyone else, on the contrary, such actions would make the order impossible to implement.

It also prohibits any form of entry into the US by such persons.

The White House and the State Department are yet to publish the names of the persons to be sanctioned by the latest round of sanctions.

In January 2017, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) introduced sanctions on Bosnian Serb Presidency member and leader of the strongest Serb nationalist party in the country, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), saying he posed a “significant threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

These sanctions were later extended by the Trump administration for whom Dodik claimed would act in his favour.