Crypto News: Serbian cross-currents

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With mass protests on the streets, President Aleksandar Vučić is facing the biggest challenge to his rule in Serbia.

How it plays out will be closely watched in Washington and Moscow.

For years, Vučić has delicately maintained the Balkan nation's position between the US, Russia, China and the European Union.

Vucic praised President Donald Trump for dismantling USAID, while seeking further deliveries of Russian gas from Vladimir Putin. He hosted Donald Trump Jr. last week, even as his government faces a deadline to sort out Russian ownership of the country's refiner, NIS, which is subject to US sanctions because it's controlled by Gazprom.

Aleksandar Vučić during an interview at his office in Belgrade on Oct. 29. Photographer: Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg

Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner, meanwhile has plans to build a luxury hotel in downtown Belgrade.

As Trump and Putin prepare to discuss a ceasefire in Russia's war on Ukraine, Serbia is another country where the cross-currents of contemporary geopolitical power are evident.

Things came to a head last weekend as hundreds of thousands converged on Belgrade for a protest that was the culmination of months of demands to stem corruption, graft and incompetence in state institutions. The trigger was the crushing to death of 15 people when a canopy collapsed at a renovated railway station in a northern city in November.

Criminal charges have been lodged against more than a dozen officials, and Miloš Vučević, a Vučić ally, stepped down as prime minister in January.

But the outrage has persisted.

The president, who often takes credit for more than tripling Serbia's economy under his tenure, has offered early elections, while alleging foreign influence aimed at instigating a "color revolution" like those in post-Soviet states.

If Vučić falls or is weakened, there is no clear successor strong enough to maintain the country's geopolitical balance.

In a region with a history of conflict, political turmoil could have far reaching consequences. — Misha Savic and Irina Vilcu

An anti-government demonstration in Belgrade on Saturday. Photographer: Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg

Global Must Reads

Trump said the US and Russia are already talking about dividing "assets" as part of a push to end the war in Ukraine, the latest sign he may be preparing to sacrifice Kyiv's interests during his planned phone call with Putin today. The UK and the EU will advance discussions on seizing frozen Russian assets to boost defense spending, as they seek to increase pressure on Putin.

Matryoshka dolls featuring Putin and Trump in Moscow in December 2019. Photographer: Misha Friedman/Getty Images

Israel launched a series of airstrikes overnight across Gaza, shattering an almost two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to act "with increasing military strength" and said the Palestinian militant group — backed by Iran and designated a terrorist organization by the US — had repeatedly refused to release the hostages it's holding and rejected proposals put forward by the Trump administration to make the ceasefire permanent.

German lawmakers are voting on a bill today that would unlock hundreds of billions of euros in debt-financed defense and infrastructure spending and signal a shift to a substantially more expansive fiscal policy. Conservative Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz and the Social Democrats last week sealed an agreement with the Greens that should secure the two-thirds majority needed for the law mandating constitutional change to pass the Bundestag, paving the way for the upper house to give final backing on Friday.

Trump's top trade negotiator is attempting to inject order into sweeping new tariffs expected next month, after previous announcements roiled markets and fueled business uncertainty. Sources say Jamieson Greer is seeking to wrestle control of a planned April 2 announcement on a litany of new duties, reinstating parts of a traditional policy process after two months of tariff chaos marked by false starts, confusion and presidential threats.

The M23 rebel group behind the latest flare-up of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo pulled out of peace talks a day before they were due to start in Angola. The Rwanda-backed militia's decision followed the EU announcing sanctions on three senior Rwandan military officials, five senior leaders of M23, and a gold refinery yesterday as criticism grows of Kigali's backing of the group that has seized two major Congolese cities.

A member of the M23 rebel group in Bukavu, eastern Congo, on Feb. 20. Photographer: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images

Peruvian authorities declared a 30-day state of emergency in the nation's capital, after the murder of singer Paul Flores raised alarm about extortion rackets.

Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Washington in the "not too distant future" as trade tensions build between the world's two largest economies.

South Africa's two biggest political parties are holding talks to resolve an impasse by the end of April over the national budget that poses the most-severe threat yet to the stability of the country's ruling alliance.

Chinese authorities have begun looking into CK Hutchison's sale of its overseas port businesses, sources say, amid signs that Beijing is unhappy that the Hong Kong conglomerate divested its Panama operations under US pressure.

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Chart of the Day

Saudi Arabia's wealth fund is set to tap a broader array of investors and pursue debt sales through subsidiaries, as it grapples with the scale of the kingdom's spending ambitions. The Public Investment Fund, the main entity tasked with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 program, is weighing a debut euro-denominated bond this year and plans to tap onshore US investors for the first time, sources say.

And Finally

For two years, Hisham Salih Yagoub has fielded calls from frantic drivers across wartorn Sudan asking him to pay thousands of dollars to the Rapid Support Forces, the genocidal paramilitary group that has torn the country apart, as extortion to get his truckloads of gum arabic to the port for export. Sudan produces 70% of the world's supply of the sticky tree sap that's an essential ingredient in everything from Coca-Cola to M&Ms. With the war sparking the globe's biggest humanitarian crisis, experts and traders say the supply chain in Sudan is completely untraceable.