Serbia has been shaken by massive protests for nearly four months after a Chinese investor's construction killed 15 people at Novi Sad train station. Protesters are demanding the resignation of President Aleksandar Vučić, who has ruled the country for more than a decade by violating citizens' political rights and constantly pressuring independent media, the political opposition and civil society organisations.
For months, Vucic has been unable to calm the situation in Serbia, but the government he controls has been paying millions of Serbs' taxes for lobbying in the United States.

U.S. Department of Justice records check shows that since 2019, the government of Serbia has entered into contracts with five lobbying companies worth more than $5.5 million.
This becomes clear from an investigation by BGNES News Agency with fellow journalists from Serbia, the US and Western Europe, which led to the disclosure of documentation on the issue.

Lobbying companies should perform public relations services by engaging and facilitating communication with officials and media in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Four of the contracts were signed by officials in Serbia and one was signed with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Belgrade, which includes companies close to President Vučić.

On November 8, 2019, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce signed a contract worth $600,000 with the lobbying company Yorktown Solutions, registered in the US capital Washington, for one year, with the possibility of additional payments. For this fee, Yorktown Solutions is to organize shows, conferences, speeches, interviews and other forms of promotional events for the Serbia Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and other key markets in the United States in order to attract foreign direct investment from the United States to Serbia. The agreement shall be renewed annually as follows: on November 9, 2020, for the amount of $400,000; on November 9, 2021, for the amount of $500,000; on November 11, 2022, for the amount of $840,000; on May 1, 2024, for the amount of $840,000; and on August 1, 2025, for the amount of $840,000. The total amount paid by the pro-government Serbian Chamber of Commerce to the lobbying company Yorktown and the materials the lobbying company produced show that most were media publications that portrayed Serbia and President Vučić in a positive light. However, there is no information that the lobbying contract has led to an increase in direct investment from the US in Serbia, but this seems unlikely as Vučić is Russian President Putin's staunchest ally in the Balkans.

On March 28, 2019, Serbia's Attorney General's Office entered into a lobbying contract with Cleary Gottlieb Steen, which is to represent the interests of Serbia's Attorney General's Office to U.S. stakeholders (including U.S. government officials), regarding certain regional cooperation issues affecting Serbia and Kosovo. In correspondence between the two parties to the contract, the US company used Serbian terminology - "Kosovo and Metohija region" and "interim authorities in Pristina" - even though the United States recognizes Kosovo as an independent state. Cleary Gottlieb Steen also specifies that it is working with the National Bank of Serbia and "the successor states of the former Yugoslavia."

The year before, in 2018, the US "consulting" firm Sonoran Policy Group assisted the law firm Venable LLP in connection with the removal of client Slobodan Tesic and his companies from the US Treasury's "blacklist". Tesic has been a major player in the Serbian military industry in recent decades. Under pressure from outside, the Serbian State Security /BIA/ effectively banned him from doing business in Serbia in 2009, which is why he moved his operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina that year.

However, everything changed after the Serbian Progressive Party led by Aleksandar Vučić came to power. Slobodan Tesic was brought back into the arms business in 2013 by Vučić, who was then defence minister and first deputy prime minister.  In the same year, the shady businessman was removed from the UN blacklist after lobbying by the then Serbian government. The punitive measures against Tešić by the international community were initially imposed because of deals through state-owned companies to export Serbian weapons to Libya, which amounted to tens of millions of euros.
On April 20, 2023, Serbia's current Foreign Minister Marko Djuric, who was Ambassador to Washington at the time, entered into a lobbying contract with BGR Government Affairs, LLC worth $50,000 per month or $600,000 for one year. The scope of the contract provides for the provision of government relations services to the public by engaging and facilitating communications with relevant U.S. decision makers and media. The contract was renewed on July 26, 2024, for a one-year term at $50,000 per month or $600,000 for one year. Among the materials prepared by BGR Government Affairs are media publications and Serbia's positions against the adoption of the UN resolution designating July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide.

On 15 November 2024, the Council of Europe will adopt the resolution on the resolution of the Remembrance Day. Vladimir Maric, head of Serbia's embassy in Washington, signs a lobbying contract with the VALCOUR company on behalf of Foreign Minister Marko Djuric. The subject of the contract includes consulting services in the field of strategic communications, public relations, government relations and other activities, in order to promote the Republic of Serbia as the host of the international exhibition EXPO 2027 Belgrade. The contract provides for VALCOUR employees to fly business class or private jets in the performance of their duties, with prior approval from the Republic of Serbia.

On 23 January 2025, the Serbian Government entered into an oral agreement for a lobbying contract with Blacksummit. A formal written agreement is to be concluded in the near future. Blacksummit will assist the Republic of Serbia in complying with sanctions recently imposed on its energy sector. It can be reasonably assumed that in this case Serbia is hiring lobbyists in the US to protect itself from the sanctions imposed on the company Oil Industry Serbia - NIS /owned by the Russian company Gazprom. In December, Aleksandar Vučić held a meeting with representatives of Serbia's Security and Information Agency /SIA/, during which he discussed a plan of action against the backdrop of the US decision to impose sanctions on the Serbian company, which is owned by Russian giant Gazprom. It appears that Aleksandar Vučić's government is hiring a US lobbying company to protect Russian interests in Serbia. Apparently, paying lobbying companies for PR and giving business in Serbia to influential US figures is an approach that brings President Vučić serious political dividends in America. In April 2024, Politico published a story claiming that Aleksandar Vučić was willing to give the Yugoslav Army General Staff building in Belgrade, destroyed in the 1999 Operation Allied Force airstrike, to an investment company linked to President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and lobbyist Richard Grenell. Many Serbs believe this is like the Taliban wanting to build a luxury apartment complex on the site of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

It is clear to the people of Serbia that neither their feelings, nor protests against corruption, nor anything else can prevent Vučić from paying any price to stay in power. What remains is the hope of ordinary people in the country that, unlike the Yugoslav dictator Tito and the war criminal Slobodan Milošević, Aleksandar Vučić will leave the political scene without mass bloodshed. | BGNES

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