Revealed: Serbian ruler’s secret role in ‘illegal’ effort to help Trump business
Source: The Guardian ·
Exclusive: Aleksandar Vučić personally intervened to push plans for controversial $500m Trump Tower in Belgrade, which sparked protests and a criminal caseSerbia’s authoritarian ruler personally intervened to advance an allegedly illegal scheme to hand over a protected site in Belgrade for a Trump tower, the Guardian can reveal.Aleksandar Vučić summoned officials to a meeting at his presidential…
From the source
Serbia’s authoritarian ruler personally intervened to advance an allegedly illegal scheme to hand over a protected site in Belgrade for a Trump tower, the Guardian can reveal. Aleksandar Vučić summoned officials to a meeting at his presidential offices about the project, which has culminated in a landmark indictment of senior figures from his regime on charges of abuse of public office. The criminal case is believed to be the first resulting from the Trumps’ global moneymaking campaign, described by critics as a “pay to play” arrangement where everything from sanctions relief to cutting-edge chips is available to those who enrich the first family and their associates. The alleged scheme to override the protected status of a historic building in the Serbian capital looms over an election scheduled for 25 October, when Vučić will seek to extend his 12 years in power in the face of a mass protest movement spurred by government corruption. A nationalist former propaganda chief under…