An American in Belgrade

Earlier this year, an investment firm owned by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of a former and possibly next US President, acquired from the Serbian government a lease and rights to build a luxury hotel, apartment complex, and museum on the site of the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense in Belgrade.

Under the terms of the deal, the free lease is for 99 years, and Serbia will retain the ownership of the land and receive a percentage of profits from the development (22 percent, according to some sources).

This might be yet another story of Belgrade turning into Dubai or American capitalism-driven imperialism conquering the region were it not for a couple of important details.

An Architectural Gem

For one, the so-called Generalštab (General Staff building complex) is listed in the Serbian Registry of Cultural Properties.

Built in 1965 by Nikola Dobrović, the building’s design is said to resemble the canyon on the Sutjeska River where a famous WWII battle had taken place in 1943.

The monument (Milorad Živković, 1971) located on the site of the battle near the Bosnian village of Tjentište followed the same lines.

The building also served as a symbolic gate into the city as a two-lane road and public transit lines rise up Nemanjina boulevard from the now former train and bus stations near the Sava River.

The building was listed in 2005; two subsequent attempts were made to remove it in order to raze it and redevelop the area.

“My Monument, It Fell Down”

Two, the building was severely damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against the then-ruling regime of Slobodan Milošević. Several people were killed and dozens wounded in three separate attacks.

After the war, only one part of the southern Building B, the undamaged tower, was put back to use as a Serbian Defense Ministry headquarters.

In 2013 parts of the northern A building were demolished, purportedly for safety reasons. For many years now, there has been talk in Belgrade of getting rid of it all and starting all over in the area.

During a trip to Belgrade more than a decade ago, as we passed by the building in a tram, a local friend said to my wife, an American, who was puzzled by the sight, “Gift from Amerika.”

Joking aside, to many Serbs, Belgrade’s most famous ruin is a symbol.

In 2017, architect Slobodan Maldini told Novosti that, “The General Staff building complex is visible evidence of the suffering of our people during the NATO aggression. If we demolish it, the last architectural testimony for young generations to learn about the new Serbian history will disappear. This monument of suffering and an example of the brutality of NATO forces is a holy place for our nation.”

Last March, after the deal was announced, a Serbian opposition party member told the New York Times that, “The General Staff building is a memorial for us [which] initiates deep, hidden emotions to the victims of the NATO bombing. To build a hotel there…would be a mockery to the citizens of Serbia.”

There were some street protests as well, though nowhere near the size and energy of those against lithium mining.

According to Kushner, the planned new complex will include “a museum and memorial designed by Serbian architects, to pay tribute to the location’s importance in recent Serbian history.”

The project has been controversial on the American end too.

Richard Grennell, Trump’s former special envoy to the Balkans who has been pushing both sides to get the project done, said the deal represented an opportunity to “turn a symbol of previous conflict into a bridge of friendship and renewal,” and that it “symbolizes the tremendous progress that has been made to heal the wounds from the past.”

But retired General Wesley Clark, who led the NATO war against Serbia, sees it as “a betrayal of the United States, its policies and the brave diplomats and airmen who did what they could to stop Serb ethnic cleansing,” and that it additionally “serves the Kremlin’s core interests in undermining NATO.”

There are concerns about conflict of interest: For the son-in-law of the potential future president of the United States to be receiving favors from the Serbian government for personal profit raises both eyebrows and important questions about merging public and private interests.

Conversely, many voices warn the Serbian side is using the project as an inroad to influence the future Trump administration.

America in the Balkans

The episode is just the latest example of America’s presence in the region, which dates back to World War II and particularly socialist Yugoslavia, which, some say, wouldn’t have survived without American loans, grants, and barters.

The US presidential election in just a few weeks brings up a fresh round of questions, if not apprehension, and may have direct impact on Generalštabgate.

Our resident Balkan foreign policy expert, friend of the Remembering Yugoslavia podcast, and Yugobloknik, Valery Perry, sketched how the election might play out in the region in the Yugoblok conversation, “The U.S. Presidential Election and the Balkans.”

From the historical context of US involvement in the region to an overview of Trump and Biden administrations’ policies there to a prediction of what either current candidate might do if elected, Perry covered a lot of ground.

Watch a video recording from Perry’s talk:

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An earlier version of this article first appeared in the weekly Yugoblok newsletter Yugobulletin.

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