Jared Kushner's 'hush hush' Serbia deal sparks major international uprising
Jared Kushner’s multi-million dollar plan for a high-rise hotel and apartment complex in Serbia has been hit by furious opposition in the nation amid claims it's being used by the nation’s government to cozy up to Donald Trump.
The former president’s son-in-law wants to build the project on the site of the former Serbian army headquarters, which was destroyed by NATO during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.
Last week, tens of thousands of Serbs signed a petition against the project in a matter of hours, the Daily Beast reported.
One reason for the furious opposition is that many see Kushner as stomping on cultural heritage.
“It’s one of the pearls or pre-war architecture, but there is the emotional aspect,” Borko Stefanovic, the deputy president of Serbia’s Party of Freedom and Justice, told the Beast.
“This site was bombed by NATO in 1999. Most Serbs believe this site should not be desecrated in any way.”
But there’s also anger that Kushner’s deal may be a secretive pact between the nation’s leaders looking to find a way to get in with a future Trump administration.
“There is absolutely no transparency, the government is not willing to present to the public any aspect of this possible deal,” Stefanovic told the Beast.
“[Serbian President Aleksandar] Vucic and his regime are counting desperately that Mr. Trump will win in the United States.”
Savo Manojlovic, the leader of the opposition movement Kreni-Promeni, or “Make Changes,” told the Beast the same. The site has previously been a target for Trump, who wanted to develop it for a hotel in 2013, but that project didn’t get off the ground, according to the report.
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The involvement of Ric Greenell — Trump’s former envoy to the Balkans who is reportedly being considered as the future Secretary of State — in Kushner’s move has increased suspicion, Manojlovic said.
“What [Kushner] should be thinking about is: I was in the White House, my father-in-law is running for president, I shouldn’t enter into deals that may give the appearance… of [a foreign government] trying to gain advantage with the potential next president of the United States,” said Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen.
“If our diplomats are conducting themselves as diplomats with an eye towards what business deals they can conduct when they leave the foreign service, rather than how to advance the interests of the American people, we’re in a really bad way.”
The deal with Kushner has been kept “hush-hush,” the Beast reported, with Stefanovic saying he's only seen a “memorandum of understanding.” Efforts to get more information were shut down, he said.
“Their response in the parliament when we started to speak on this was fierce. They attacked us personally — it was on the verge of physical violence,” he said.
Manojlovic told the Beast the opposition planned to use, “Petition, protest, and public pressure — we will do everything to protect our state, citizens, and national and constitutional pride, to not give our government a chance to do this illegal act of giving land to the Kushner family.
“Serbia is not for sale.”
Kushner’s deal has also raised questions in the U.S., with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) demanding Kushner be investigated for “influence-peddling.”
His request was shot down by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and James Comer (R-KY).