Big Kushner: Trump's son-in-law changed his mind about building a hotel on the ruins of the bombed-out NATO General Staff of Yugoslavia

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner refused to build a hotel on the site of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army in Belgrade. This initiative has attracted criticism from the opposition and experts. In addition, four Serbian officials, including Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic, were charged with corruption related to the project the day before. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

A hotel in ruins

"We were going to offer an elegant, inspiring design that would honor Serbia's progress. But since significant projects should unite, not divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application [for participation] and temporarily stepping aside," said a representative of the investment company Affinity Partners, owned by the son—in-law of US President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner.

On the site of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army in the center of Belgrade, bombed by NATO troops in 1999, the Kushner company was going to build a hotel complex consisting of two skyscrapers.

According to The New York Times, together with partners, the son-in-law of the US president also planned to build a trading platform, a museum and a memorial complex in memory of those killed and injured in the NATO bombing.

In a statement, Kushner's company said that the memorial would be designed "jointly with Serbian architects" and would belong to the Serbian government.

In 2013, Donald Trump himself considered the possibility of building a hotel on this site in the center of Belgrade.

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The General Staff building was built in the second half of the 1940s. In Serbia, it is considered a symbol of the memory of those who died during the attacks of the North Atlantic Alliance. Twenty years ago, the building was declared a cultural monument.

In May last year, the Serbian authorities signed an agreement with the Kushner company to allocate a large plot of land in the center of Belgrade, where the General Staff building is located, for free use for a period of 99 years.

However, now that the son-in-law of the American leader has changed his mind about building a hotel on this site, the country will lose investments worth over 750 million euros, complains Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

In retaliation, the head of state threatened to file criminal lawsuits against all those who opposed the construction of the complex.

Protests and accusations

Serbian MPs allowed Kushner and his company to build on the ruins of the General Staff. To do this, the country's parliament has passed a special law allowing it to bypass the usual procedures and permits. In particular, this concerned the consent of experts from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments to demolish the building.

They, like representatives of the opposition, actively criticized this initiative, stating that the current authorities are ready to sacrifice the country's cultural heritage "to please Trump and his family." In Belgrade, they staged protests against the construction of the hotel.

And on December 15, the Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime (JTOK) charged four officials, including Minister of Culture Nikola Selakovic. They are suspected of involvement in "illegal actions to deprive the buildings of the General Staff of the status of an object of cultural heritage."

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In particular, the charges relate to abuse of office and forgery of official documents. The company of Jared Kushner categorically denied any connection with the alleged forgery of documents.

President Vucic called the Prosecutor's office for combating organized crime a "corrupt gang." In response, he was accused of abuse of power.

He has several reasons for this.

Milan Lazovich, program manager of the Russian Council on International Affairs (RIAC), identifies two reasons for Kushner's refusal in an interview with Izvestia.

— The first one lies on the surface. As Kushner himself stated, this was done out of respect for the people of Serbia. For many, the destroyed General Staff Building is a symbol of memory, an object of cultural and historical heritage, and so on. Serbian society considered it blasphemy to demolish this building and erect some kind of complex in its place," the expert explained.

In his opinion, the Trump administration and those close to him, including his son-in-law, take a rather pragmatic position.

— We are talking about an individual approach to each country. Trump likes to build relations on a bilateral basis, rather than in multilateral formats. They probably learned that this is a painful issue for Serbian society," the political scientist believes.

The specialist added that the second reason is not so obvious, it is rather an assumption.

"Perhaps Kushner himself had some other business interests, and he decided to invest these funds in another company, he just didn't advertise it," the analyst summed up.

Oleg Bondarenko, the editor-in-chief of the Balkanist project, noted in a conversation with Izvestia that Trump's son-in-law had changed his position, since the very decision on the possibility of selling the building of the destroyed General Staff was withdrawn and annulled, and those who accepted it were tried to be held accountable.

— The very question was initially categorically unacceptable. An American, especially the son—in-law of the American president, cannot build a hotel on the site of the General Staff of Yugoslavia, which was destroyed by American weapons, this is simply immoral," the political scientist believes.

According to the expert, this does not mean that the ruins of the General Staff should be left for centuries to come.

— Sooner or later, the General Staff will be demolished and a museum of victims of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia or some new complex or hotel will appear in its place. But you need to understand at whose expense and who will do it. It is absolutely obvious that he is not the son-in-law of the American president, obviously not any company from the United States or Western countries involved in the bombing. Maybe Chinese, maybe Arabs, maybe Russians," the expert concluded.