Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic allegedly offered Richard Grenell, a US lobbyist, to help topple Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb presidency member and leader of the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats in the Republika Srpska (RS) entity in return for help in improving his image before the upcoming elections in Serbia, Montenegrin news portal Vijesti reported on Tuesday.

According to Vijesti, Grenell met with a group of congressmen from the Republican Party on December 1, at the Trump Hotel in Washington, and the meeting was also attended by Serbian Ambassador to the US Marko Djuric, a longtime close associate of Vucic.

Grenell, who was the special envoy of former US President Donald Trump for Kosovo and the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations, had allegedly presented Dodik at the meeting as a major disruptive factor in the Balkans, and Vucic as a partner and stabilizer of opportunities.

The Podgorica media outlet also claims that Grenell stated Vucic would be ready to help remove Dodik, offering Zeljka Cvijanovic, the incumbent RS President, as an alternative. In return, Vucic hopes that this could improve his tainted image, especially before the elections coming in spring 2022.

Cvijanovic travelled to the United States in November and had meetings with people from Congress and the US administration, but there was no official information on the topics of the meeting.

The Vijesti also found out that Vucic “complained” about Dodik to the EU’s Balkans envoy, Miroslav Lajcak, during the last meeting in Belgrade.