Belarusian Tractors for Republika Srpska Came via Novi Sad
Republika Srpska limited subsidies to tractors from a Belarusian state factory in Minsk, and imports ran through Novi Sad's Agropanonka, founded by Belarus's honorary consul.
The Novi Sad firm Agropanonka sits at the center of a multimillion-euro subsidy program through which Republika Srpska financed the purchase of Belarusian tractors. Radio Free Europe published an investigation on November 12 showing that the imports went through Serbia, and that the firm’s founder is Belarus’s honorary consul in Novi Sad, Dragoljub Svonja. The agriculture ministries of Republika Srpska and Belarus, as well as Agropanonka, did not answer the newsroom’s questions.
How much money went into Belarusian tractors?
The Republika Srpska government paid about six million euros in subsidies: roughly four million in 2024 and another two million in 2026, through a dedicated Partnership Development Fund. Buyers, meaning farms, added about four million euros of their own, so the total exceeds ten million. The 2024 memorandum had envisaged a fund of five million euros.
By a special government decision, the program was limited to tractors from the Belarusian state factory Minsk Tractor Works, which is under sanctions from Ukraine, Canada and Poland. Other brands and manufacturers were excluded. No tender was required, because the tractors were bought not by public institutions or companies but by farms, so the money flowed as a subsidy.
The number of delivered tractors differs across the available data. Documentation cited by Radio Free Europe points to about 250 tractors, while Jovo Simic, owner of the Bijeljina firm Agro-Simeks, confirms 245 delivered in 2024 and 2026.
How did Novi Sad end up in the supply chain?
The memorandum on agricultural cooperation was signed in May 2024 in Banja Luka by the then agriculture minister, now Republika Srpska prime minister, Savo Minic. According to officials, the program grew out of a February 2024 meeting between Milorad Dodik and Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk. When signing, Minic said:
“This is the realization of the agreement between Dodik and Lukashenko.”
Agropanonka is listed on the manufacturer’s website as its representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Svonja attended the signing of the memorandum, and on June 3, 2025 he toured the tractor factory in Minsk with Minic. Lukashenko awarded him the Order of Honor on March 27, 2025. Agropanonka and the Belarusian manufacturer founded the joint tractor assembly plant Belarus-Agropanonka in 2008, Svonja is its director, and the firm reported a loss of about 98,000 euros in 2025.
The government picked Agro-Simeks as distributor, and its owner confirms that the tractors reached Bosnia and Herzegovina via Novi Sad and were sold to farms that answered the agriculture ministry’s public call. From 2021 to 2026 the Bijeljina firm also won 21 contracts from public institutions, the power utility and municipal companies in Republika Srpska, worth about 255,000 euros. Simic rejects any suspicion:
“I have nothing to do with politics. I have imported and will keep importing these tractors, with or without our government’s subsidy program.”
Two other owners of Republika Srpska firms describe a different division of roles. Lazar Djekic, owner of CL Dominator from Samac, says: “We did not take part in distribution either this year or in 2024.” Stevica Simojlovic, owner of Sinpeks B from Bijeljina, said he did not work on distribution this year, and he attributes the decision to the Novi Sad importer:
“I didn’t do it this year, that’s Agro-Simeks. That’s what the distributor Agropanonka from Novi Sad decided.”
What do buyers and public procurement watchdogs say?
Farmer Milena Majstorovic from Bijeljina, who took delivery of a new tractor in August, counts up what the program meant for her:
“We paid about 36,600 marks (about 18,000 euros), and the government [RS] gave, I think, 54,000 (about 27,000 euros).”
Rajko Kecan of the Tender association argues that public procurement rules allow practices that are banned in Europe, with very low penalties: “The law has legalized corruption without accountability.”
The Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina records that vehicles and parts worth about 2.83 million euros were imported from Belarus during the subsidy period. In 2025, when there were no subsidies, that import came to about 12,000 euros. Savo Minic handed over tractors in Bijeljina on August 10, 2026 with minister Andjelka Kuzmic, and on August 25 with Simic.
Why is this a question for Serbia too?
Belarus has been under European Union sanctions since the 2020 presidential election. In its 2026 report, the European Commission states that enforcement of sanctions on Russia and Belarus in Bosnia and Herzegovina meets significant obstacles in ministries controlled by Dodik’s party, and that Serbia is still not sufficiently aligned with the Union’s common foreign and security policy, including sanctions on Belarus. In this case the link is commercial and concrete: goods financed by the Republika Srpska budget and by farms across the Drina passed through a Novi Sad firm.
