2026年10月6日 / 美国东部时间上午11:00 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
伦敦电 —— 一家与特朗普总统盟友有关联的小型美国公司参与波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那一项价值逾15亿美元的能源项目，引发了外界对白宫如何利用其在这个脆弱巴尔干国家影响力的质疑。
美国议员指责特朗普政府解除对波斯尼亚塞族分离主义领导人米洛拉德·多迪克的制裁，目的是为了让特朗普的盟友获利并壮大其势力，同时在此过程中损害美国在该地区长期以来的外交政策利益。
上周日，多迪克领导的塞尔维亚民族主义政党赢得波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那三个总统席位之一，多迪克为此向特朗普表示称赞。根据该国复杂的权力分享选举制度，总统席位由波斯尼亚的穆斯林、塞尔维亚族和克罗地亚族三方分配。
“如果不是唐纳德·特朗普取得了辉煌胜利……我们今天可能已经成为政治上的死人了，”多迪克在一次演讲中对支持者说道，他还在演讲中感谢俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京的支持。
与特朗普有关联的公司即将承建天然气管道
AAFS基础设施与能源公司是一家去年在美国注册成立的企业，由特朗普前私人律师杰西·宾纳尔和特朗普盟友迈克尔·弗林将军的兄弟约瑟夫·弗林担任负责人，该公司即将获得南部互连天然气管道项目的开发合同。
该管道项目已被波斯尼亚官员讨论多年，但长期遭到与克里姆林宫关系密切的多迪克反对。但在去年4月AAFS参与该项目的消息公布后，拥有波斯尼亚议会否决权的多迪克表示不会阻挠这项提议。六个月前，特朗普政府解除了美国财政部近十年前对多迪克实施的制裁。
该管道将把波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那与克罗地亚的天然气网络连接起来，使波斯尼亚能够从邻国进口液化天然气。据克罗地亚政府透露，该项目价值约17亿美元，将有助于减少波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那对俄罗斯天然气进口的依赖。
AAFS在其网站上将自己描述为一家专注于“能源安全、项目架构、资本协调和长期区域基础设施开发”的公司。
该公司似乎没有任何类似能源项目的可证明经验。
这位分离主义领导人多迪克此前一直担任波斯尼亚自治的塞族控制领土塞族共和国总统，长期以来被指控破坏美国斡旋的《代顿和平协定》，该协定结束了20世纪90年代波斯尼亚、克罗地亚和塞尔维亚之间的血腥宗派暴力。
这些包括资产冻结和签证禁令的制裁是奥巴马政府在2017年实施的。拜登政府随后在2022年实施了进一步制裁，指控多迪克腐败，包括他将政府合同交给塞族共和国的亲密商业伙伴。
众议院民主党人上个月发布的一份题为《巴尔干地区的权钱交易》的国会报告称，解除对多迪克的制裁和他不再反对该管道项目这两项决定直接相关。
报告指控称：“特朗普政府利用其外交影响力和与迈克尔·弗林等不可靠人物的联系，为AAFS基础设施与能源有限责任公司争取到南部互连天然气管道的特许经营合同，该公司由迈克尔·弗林的兄弟约瑟夫·弗林以及与特朗普结盟的律师和政治活动家杰西·宾纳尔拥有和运营。”
AAFS基础设施与能源有限责任公司未回应哥伦比亚广播公司的置评请求。
报告中引用并经哥伦比亚广播公司审核的外国代理人登记文件显示，特朗普前国家安全顾问迈克尔·弗林最后一次受雇为塞族共和国的付费说客是在2025年10月，也就是对多迪克的制裁被解除的那个月。
同一份文件显示，弗林从RRB策略公司获得了10万美元的报酬，该游说公司由罗德·布拉戈耶维奇运营。布拉戈耶维奇曾在2011年因18项腐败罪名被定罪，在联邦监狱服刑近8年后，于去年获得特朗普总统的赦免。
根据外国代理人登记文件，弗林为塞族共和国政府提供战略咨询和建议、分析和信息研究以及引荐。
经哥伦比亚广播公司审核的另一份外国代理人登记文件显示，布拉戈耶维奇的公司最初于2025年3月签署了一份“代表塞族共和国提供通信和公共事务支持”的合同。
哥伦比亚广播公司通过与弗林和布拉戈耶维奇相关的电子邮件别名寻求置评，但在发稿时未收到任何回复。
2025年11月13日，美国驻萨拉热窝大使馆在社交媒体帖子中表示，临时代办约翰·金克尔会见了波斯尼亚总理努尔明·尼克西奇，讨论了天然气管道项目，并“支持通过克罗地亚向波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那的消费者进口美国天然气”。
一周后，该大使馆宣布了一项“美国公司开发、建设和管理该管道”的初步协议。
四天后的11月24日，AAFS基础设施与能源公司在怀俄明州注册成立。
今年1月，美国驻萨拉热窝大使馆再次发帖确认，包括约瑟夫·弗林和宾纳尔在内的AAFS领导层与波斯尼亚高级官员举行了会晤。
随后，波斯尼亚议会在4月通过的立法中授予AAFS牵头投资者和运营商的地位，负责该拟建天然气管道项目。
当月晚些时候，克罗地亚和波斯尼亚政府签署了建造该管道的合同，美国能源部长克里斯·赖特出席了签署仪式。在4月2日与波斯尼亚能源部长举行的新闻发布会上，宾纳尔称赞该管道项目是特朗普政府的“优先事项”。
白宫上周拒绝就该管道项目置评，但一位政府官员表示，解除对多迪克的制裁是为了防止巴尔干地区出现不稳定。
“这又是特朗普总统务实、有远见的外交政策的一个例子，该政策防止了其前任经常陷入困境的长期问题演变为灾难，”一位白宫官员周五告诉哥伦比亚广播公司，但未详细说明特朗普政府正在防止的灾难类型。
作为众议院民主党人撰写的国会报告的一部分发布的一份国务院信件称，将多迪克从制裁名单中移除有助于确保波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那的和平与稳定。撰写这封信的官员保罗·格利亚诺内表示，解除对多迪克的制裁导致波斯尼亚塞族分离主义者取消了本会破坏波斯尼亚政府稳定的政策。
“这一举措推进了美国在[波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那]和西巴尔干地区的利益。10月18日，塞族共和国国民议会撤回了近年来通过的大部分反《代顿协定》立法，”信件中写道。这些立法原本包括剥夺波斯尼亚国家警察和司法机构在塞族共和国的任何管辖权的法律。
政治科学家、巴尔干外交政策专家贾斯明·穆贾诺维奇告诉哥伦比亚广播公司，相关立法在对多迪克的制裁解除前就已经被推翻，他对特朗普政府为此次行动辩护的理由持怀疑态度。
“塞尔维亚民族主义当局和波斯尼亚的塞族共和国实体在地方议会非法通过的一揽子全面分离主义法律，已经被波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那宪法法院推翻，”他说。
“如果辩称特朗普政府还是成功让多迪克及其支持者撤回了这些法律，目前仍不清楚此举的意义何在，或者说，鉴于这些法律已经无效，为什么还要这么做，”他补充道，这将“导致为整个政权提供制裁豁免”。
Democrats cry foul as U.S. lifts sanctions on Serb nationalist, MAGA-linked firm gets huge Bosnia energy contract
October 6, 2026 / 11:00 AM EDT / CBS News
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.
On Sunday, Mr. 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, Serb and Croat ethnic groups under the country’s complex power-sharing electoral system.
A photograph distributed by the Russian state news agency Sputnik shows Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meeting with Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik in Moscow, Sept. 29, 2026. Yevgeny MESSMAN/POOL/AFP/Getty
“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.
Company with links to Trump poised to build gas pipeline
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.
AAFS Infrastructure & Energy LLC did not respond to a CBS News request for comment.
Foreign agent registration filings (FARA) cited in the report and reviewed by CBS News show that Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, last worked as a paid lobbyist for Republika Srpska in October 2025, the month during which the sanctions against Dodik were lifted.
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich speaks to journalists outside his home after being pardoned by President Trump, Feb. 10, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty
Those same filings show that Flynn was paid $100,000 for that work by RRB Strategies, a lobbying firm run by Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who was convicted in 2011 of 18 counts of corruption and spent nearly eight years in a federal prison before being pardoned by President Trump last year.
Flynn provided strategic advice and counsel, analysis and information research, and introductions to the Republika Srpska government, according to the FARA filings.
Blagoyevich’s firm originally signed a contract to “provide communications and public affairs support on behalf of the Republic of Srpska” in March 2025, separate FARA filings reviewed by CBS News show.
CBS News sought comment from email aliases associated with Flynn and Blagojevich, but did not receive any response by the time of publication.
On Nov. 13, 2025, the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said in a social media post that Chargé d’Affaires John Ginkel had met Bosnian Prime Minister Nermin Niksic to discuss the gas pipeline project and “to support the importation of U.S. gas through Croatia to consumers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
One week later, the embassy announced a preliminary agreement for an “American company to develop, build, and manage the pipeline.”
Four days after that, on Nov. 24, AAFS Infrastructure & Energy was incorporated in the state of Wyoming.
A photo shared on social media by the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Jan. 14, 2026, shows U.S. Chargé d’Affaires John Ginkel (left), with AAFS Infrastructure and Energy LLC President Joseph Flynn (2nd from left) and AAFS Vice President Jesse Binnall (3rd from left) during a meeting with Bosnia and Herzegovina Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic and other officials from the country. U.S. Embassy Sarajevo/X
In January, the U.S Embassy in Sarajevo posted again confirming that a meeting had taken place between AAFS leadership, including Joseph Flynn and Binnall, and top Bosnian officials.
AAFS was then granted the status of lead investor and operator on the proposed natural gas pipeline in legislation passed by Bosnia’s parliament in April.
Later that month, the Croatian and Bosnian governments signed a contract to construct the pipeline with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright in attendance for the signing ceremony. At a news conference with Bosnia’s energy minister on April 2, Binnall hailed the pipeline project as a “priority” for the Trump administration.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, left, shakes hands after signing an energy agreement with Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Kristo, during a summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia, April 28, 2026. Darko Bandic/AP
The White House declined to comment on the pipeline project last week, but an administration official said the sanctions against Dodik were lifted to prevent instability in the Balkans.
“This is yet another example of President Trump’s pragmatic, farseeing foreign policy that has prevented disasters on perennial issues that his predecessors so often stumbled into,” a White House official told CBS News on Friday, without elaborating on the type of disasters the Trump administration was preventing.
A State Department letter published as part of the House Democrat-authored congressional report said the decision to delist Dodik had helped ensure peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The official who wrote the letter, Paul Guaglianone, said lifting sanctions against Dodik had led to Bosnian Serb separatists rolling back policies that would have destabilized Bosnia’s government.
The lifting of sanctions “advanced U.S. interests in [Bosnia and Herzegovina] and the Western Balkans. On October 18, the Republika Srpska National Assembly (RSNA) withdrew most of the anti-Dayton legislation it had passed in recent years,” the letter read. That legislation had included laws that would have blocked Bosnia’s national police and judiciary from having any authority in Republika Srpska.
Political scientist and Balkans foreign policy expert Jasmin Mujanović told CBS News the legislation in question had already been struck down prior to the lifting of the sanctions against Dodik, and he was skeptical of the Trump administration’s justifications for the move.
“This package of omnibus secessionist laws that the Serb nationalist authorities and the RS [Republika Srpska] entity in Bosnia had unlawfully voted through in the local assembly had already been struck down by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia Herzegovina,” he said.
“If the argument is that the Trump administration nevertheless managed to get Dodik and his people to withdraw the laws, it’s still unclear what the significance of that is, or for that matter why, given that the laws are moot,” he said, adding that it that would “result in sanctions relief for an entire regime.”