Trump family's deals in the Balkans
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Why was a Russian oligarch’s money used to fund Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding?
The Pat Kenny Show on News Talk. Now, as mentioned on this programme yesterday, there are questions being asked about why a Russian oligarch, his name is Umar Kremlev, pal of Putin's, why he financed Donald Trump Junior's wedding to the tune of a few thousand hundred thousand dollars. But it turns out that that's pretty small beer compared to some of the deals that the family and their close business associates have been putting in place in Eastern Europe. The Al Albanian development is quite the fairy tale if you believe Ivanka Trump's version of events given to earth.org on YouTube.
Unbelievable beautiful fourteen hundred hectar private island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We were on a friend's boat. And we stopped for a swim. Effectively that's how we found it. We swam to the islands, we went on a hike barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated. And it stayed with us ever since. And Over the course of of many years we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and and transform it. For me, this is it feels more like a challenge than anything else. The the culmination of all of my Experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live and trying to Really build something that's a tangible manifestation of that.
And of course if she had hiked up barefoot that would have been the challenge because the whole pathway is shale. Impossible to actually hike up there barefoot, but that's perhaps another story. Since the plan became public, Albanians have been protesting in increasingly large numbers, as reported here by Rachel Maddow of MS Now.
What is the alleged Albanian island development and why did it spark mass protests?
Thousands of people gathered outside the Parliament building in the Albanian Capitol. This is the eighth consecutive day of huge protests in this country against the corruption of Donald Trump and his family. Uh for over a week, demonstrators have been gathering in massive numbers to protest a real estate project that's planned by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Jared Kushner's private equity firm, which is mostly funded by the Saudi government. Um they plan to build a resort on the site of a national treasure ecological preserve in Albania. And it turns out the Albanian people feel quite protective of that. These protests started when barbed wire fences first started going up at the development site, cutting off public access to the local beaches.
But these protests are really about corruption, and they might turn out the government of Albania. The people of Albania want to know why their prime minister appears to be selling off their most beautiful coastline to the son-in-law of the American president and his. His Saudi investors.
That was Rachel Maddow of MS Now. There are other uh Trump projects in the region as well, and I'm joined now by Sarajevo resident and former UN diplomat Garrett Patrick Kelly. Garrett, good morning. Good morning, Pat. Let's start with the one we've just been hearing about Albania. It's the one perhaps that got most public attention. Uh this was a a terrible scandal really, but it looks like the population of Albania is facing it down.
Indeed, and you know, uh the ultra-rich are so tone-deaf. This uh the Ivanka Trump uh recording, first of all, she was on a boat in two thousand and twenty-one and it wasn't any small boat, it was Nat Rothschild's super yacht. And they hosted the Albanian Prime Minister there for dinner on that yacht, where she came, she climbed up and discovered this uh island, you know, that was going to be a dream location. Actually a military installation from the time of Enver Hoja. But before she had before she had uh posted that video. There was protests, as Rachel Maddow had said, on the beach, because it's a nature-protected area where flamingos are in transitory migration routes. And uh there would probably have been much less international attention if she hadn't posted that tone-deaf video, which turned then into the flamingo protests.
And it's a combination of many things, you know, people seeing the corruption at very high.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why was a Russian oligarch’s money used to fund Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding?
0:01–1:51
2
What is the alleged Albanian island development and why did it spark mass protests?
1:51–5:24
3
How did the European Commission intervene in Albania’s five‑star resort plan?
5:24–9:57
4
What happened to Jared Kushner’s proposed luxury hotel in Belgrade?
9:57–12:37
5
Why was the Serbian minister for culture arrested over the Belgrade hotel scheme?
12:37–14:57
6
What is the Southern Interconnect gas pipeline deal in Bosnia and who are the Trump‑linked beneficiaries?
14:57–16:45
7
How did Serbia’s handling of a war‑criminal’s funeral affect its EU accession prospects?
16:45–16:47