Croatia’s Corrupt Politicians and the Balkan Nation’s Ex-President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic Facilitate Stronger Ties with China, Russia and Suspect Entities in the Region
America Must Hold to Account Kleptocratic Croatia — a NATO and EU member state.
Key Takeaways:
- Ex-Croatian President Grabar-Kitarovic family’s business dealings with Russian enterprises connected to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
- Former Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic questionable engagements with Burisma and Nigeria’s oil business investments in Croatia’s football facilities.
- Grabar-Kitarovic’s financial donors include criminal fugitive Zdravko Mamic, and Croatia’s construction company GP Krk, which was reported for facilitating money laundering and at the same time blocking US investment.
- While the Trump Administration and U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo were warning EU and NATO members about the China threat, the Croatian government and Grabar-Kitarovic brazenly courted Chinese Communist Party officials and selling Croatia as a beachhead for China’s entities.
- Croatia listed on the FATF’s money laundering and terrorism financing ‘Grey List.’
- U.S. Congressman Doug Lamborn’s official letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic raises demanded answers on blocked U.S. investments, abuse of US taxpayer funds, Russia’s malign influence, and Croatia’s placement on FATF’s ‘Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Grey List.’
- Croatia’s compromised intelligence structure and access to classified materials is a threat to NATO’s vulnerable security networks.
“Left-of-center SDP’s President Milanovic (Social Democrat Party) has continued with pro-Russia policies as his predecessor HDZ’s former President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (Croatian Democratic Union). While punitive EU and U.S. sanctions were firmly in place, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic took a high-level trade delegation to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Russia with the stated intent to develop closer economic cooperation in the sectors of tourism, property development, and energy, benefiting the Balkan nation. Grabar-Kitarovic then officially invited Vladimir Putin to participate in an energy conference in the capital Zagreb, which was then attended by Putin’s long-time associate, Nikolay Petrovich Tokarev, who, according to the U.S. Treasury, served with Putin as agents of the KGB in Dresden in the 1980s. Nikolay’s daughter owns luxury properties in Croatia. Both Nikolay Petrovich Tokarev and his daughter Maiya Nikolaevna Tokareva have been sanctioned by the U.S. government.”
— Congressman Doug Lamborn, chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces and senior member of the US House Armed Services Committee in an official letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
January 14, 2025 | Washington, DC | Croatia, a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), has long avoided close scrutiny on systemic deficiencies of the rule of law that were applied to other former communist Eastern European nations. Absent the principled pressure for real reforms and verification mechanisms, Croatia morphed into a state with kleptocratic networks whose politically exposed persons (PEPs) are protected by Croatia’s corrupt judiciary.
Croatia — the only EU member state placed on the money laundering and terrorism financing ‘Grey List’ in 2023
Croatia was the only EU member state placed on the money laundering and terrorism financing ‘Grey List’ by The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2023. Croatia has become the EU block’s main hub for laundering dirty money. According to the European Parliament’s report, Croatia’s informal sector is the second largest within the European Union at 29.7% of GDP, preceded by Bulgaria (33.1%), and creates a permissive playing field for the movement of illicit funds.
These issues and other serious concerns led U.S. Congressman Doug Lamborn to send an official detailed letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in September 2023. Congressman Lamborn raised serious concerns about Croatia’s heads of state propping-up Moscow’s leaders and aiding Russian enterprises red-flagged for money laundering.
Nacional’s Report | “Jakov Kitarovic’s Russian Secret”
Croatia’s Former President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Russia | Spouse Jakov Kitarovic’s Business Dealings with Russia
Croatia’s independent weekly Nacional reported that during the World Football Championship in Russia in July 2018, “Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović very aggressively hung out with Putin, took photos with him in the company of her entire family, while her husband Jakov Kitarović even found himself in a private conversation with Putin face to face, which was then exclusively revealed by Nacional.”
Grabar-Kitarovic’s pursuit of Russia was at a full display after her ascendancy to Croatia’s Presidency in 2015.
Croatia’s independent weekly Nacional reported in March 2022 that Grabar-Kitarovic’s husband, Jakov Kitarović, was engaged as an advisor to AD Plastik, the largest Croatian manufacturer of plastic parts for the automotive industry, whose co-owners are Russians and which has two factories in Russia. According to AD Plastik, Jakov Kitarovic began working for the company as a corporate security consultant on February 22, 2016, at the beginning of the second year of his wife’s presidency.
An investigative report by Ostro raised serious concerns of Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s visit to properties in Croatia in 2016 owned by companies connected to the Kremlin which had been red-flagged for money laundering. The visit paid off with the hiring of her husband, Jakov Kitarović, in 2017.
In 2017, when Western leaders imposed sanctions against Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, then-Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic aggressively pushed for closer Croatian-Russian relationship. During the same period, the US administration had imposed new sanctions on Russia.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s Scheme for Stronger Russia — Croatia Cooperation
During October 2017, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic — joined by Croatia’s Interior Minister (responsible for police) and Chief State Attorney, who is in charge of Croatia’s Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) — headed an official visit to the Russian Federation and meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. One of the largest business delegations visiting a foreign country comprised of some 150 Croatian business executives joined “Croatia’s Presidential Official Visit” for Russian-Croatian business forum in Moscow.
Grabar-Kitarovic’s trip to Russia was billed as a strategic effort “to stimulate bilateral relations that have been neglected for years.” Croatia-Russian business relations have been far from “neglected” considering Russia’s investments in a food company Agrokor, which represented 15% of Croatia’s GDP with is €6.5bn annual sales, and Russia’s long-time presence in banking, oil, hospitality/tourism/hotels and real estate related businesses in Croatia. Croatia’s old communist guard has continued to nurture their personal relationships with their counterparts in Russia for decades.
Russia’s Significant Hold on Croatia’s Banking System and Largest Grocery Chain in Croatia and the Rest of the Balkans
Sberbank, Russia-state owned bank, purchased Volksbank International AG (VBI), a subsidiary of Austria’s Osterreichische Volksbanken AG banking group, operating in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in September 2011. According to the Volksbank’s annual report for 2011, Volksbank Romania S.A. was excluded from the purchase. The attached map shows VBI Network in CEE in or around 2008.
State-owned Croatian Postal Bank took over Sberbank operations in Croatia in March 2022.
Russian regime banks Sberbank and VTB had invested vast amounts of money into Agrokor.
According to The Financial Times report published on July 4, 2018:
“The settlement plan for Agrokor, the largest private company in the Balkans will see state banking giant Sberbank take a 39.2 stake as collateral on a €1.1bn loan. VTB, the second-largest Kremlin bank, will have 7.5%, bondholders will take 25%, and Croatian banks will take 15.3%. The shareholders will manage the company for a few months before appointing new management. Agrokor nearly failed to meet its €5.8bn debt burden a year ago when Croatia passed a special law, nicknamed “Lex Agrokor”, and took the company into state administration.”
The Financial Times: “Fortenova, Croatia’s largest privately owned company, has tried repeatedly to escape the Kremlin’s orbit, but in vain.”
Sberbank was Agrokor’s biggest lender, and restructuring made it the largest owner with a 42 per cent stake. Another Russian bank, VTB, held 7 per cent. The Croatian government was deeply involved; managers and politicians shuttled between Zagreb and Moscow. That was also the only time Russian president Vladimir Putin got involved. Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited him in the Black Sea resort town Sochi and complained about the difficult situation in Agrokor, according to a person with knowledge of those events. Caught unaware, Putin was furious that Sberbank had got bogged down in Croatia in that way and demanded it get its money out, according to a person close to the bank. Putin’s spokesperson Dmitri Peskov declined to comment on what he called “commercial issues”.
Sberbank was Agrokor’s biggest lender, and restructuring made it the largest owner with a 42 per cent stake. Another Russian bank, VTB, held 7 per cent. The Croatian government was deeply involved; managers and politicians shuttled between Zagreb and Moscow.
That was also the only time Russian president Vladimir Putin got involved. Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited him in the Black Sea resort town Sochi and complained about the difficult situation in Agrokor, according to a person with knowledge of those events.
Caught unaware, Putin was furious that Sberbank had got bogged down in Croatia in that way and demanded it get its money out, according to a person close to the bank. Putin’s spokesperson Dmitri Peskov declined to comment on what he called “commercial issues”.
Investigative Reports on Grabar-Kitarovic’s Ties to Russian Offshore Business Flagged for Money Laundering
Pandora’s documents, which were obtained by Ostro and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed how Konstantin Veniaminovič Gološčapov, a Russian citizen with a Croatian passport, whom local media call Putin’s former masseur, bought the neglected old villa Katino in Šipanska Luka in 2010, paying €4 million euros through the Zagreb-owned company Mikado. Konstantin Veniaminovich Gološčapov founded Mikado company in Croatia in 2004.
The Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) reported that Konstantin Goloshchapov and Vladimir Putin met during judo trainings and worked together in St Petersburg municipality before Putin was elected president.
According to Ostro, the renovation of Šipan villa, construction of another 3 villas and the purchase of surrounding land was funded by €33.4 million euros (USD$36 million) of “loans” from seven off-shore companies which were ultimately taken over by Igor Yusufov, the former Russian Minister of Energy (2000–2004) who served during Vladimir Putin’s first presidential term.
Yusufov was a board member of the Russian state gas company Gazprom (2003–2013), and today he heads a private investment company. Forbes magazine estimates his assets at $1.1 billion.
Russia’s property owners even received a VAT refund (value added tax) in the amount of €3.5 million euros from Croatia’s government, labeling the investment as investment into “tourist facilities.”
However, the report reveals that the villas, although registered as five-star accommodation for tourists in July 2016, did not serve this purpose. It was in the same month that then Croatia’s president Kolinda Grabar Kitarović — who happened to be on the island Šipan, as a lecturer at the summer school of the Atlantic Council of Croatia organization — toured the Mikado-owned property. According to the same report, her husband Jakov Kitarovic got a job in 2017.
The Ostro article states: “The owner of Mikado today is the secretive Swiss company Realty Investments. The only thing known about it is that the chairman of the board is the honorary consul of Lithuania in Switzerland, Graziano Pedroja, who is also a member of the board of directors of the Swiss Sentinel Holding, which, after its foundation in 2017, hired the husband of the former president, Jakov Kitarović, as an expert.”
According to the Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT):
“Graziano Pedroja, the Honorary Consul of Lithuania in Switzerland is “close with Konstantin Goloshchapov, also known as “Putin’s massage therapist”, as well as a former Russian energy minister, Igor Yusufov. The consul also has links to luxury real estate in Croatia, investigative journalism centre Oštro in the Balkan country has found.”
Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s Campaign Financing and Whitewashing
The prosecution of high-level political corruption in Croatia is best summarized as “pin-prick strikes” against economic crimes and the subversion of the rule of law. On the long list of entities and individuals suspected of money laundering in Croatia are the donors to Croatia’s major political parties.
According to the article released by Index.hr in September 2019 under the title, “Is there any criminal that Kolinda is not good with?” the author lists a number of individuals which Grabar-Kitarovic surrounds herself with, who have been convicted or accused of various types of crimes.
Following an investigation which was triggered through US engagement, Zdravko Mamic was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for tax evasion, corruption and bribery in June 2018. According to the judgement, Mamic and his co-conspirators, embezzled the equivalent of €15 million ($17 million) of the club’s money since 2008 and evaded €1.6m ($1.8m) in state taxes. Just days before the court conviction, Mamic escaped to neighboring Bosnia and Hercegovina and has not served his sentence.
The updated indictment for Mamic in December 2024, added additional €20,6 million of embezzlement from Dinamo.
Various media reported about Mamic funding Grabar-Kitarovic’s presidential campaign, regularly hosting dinners and her birthday celebration.
Her close personal connection with Zdravko Mamić came into focus of Croatian main intelligence agency SOA during their investigations of Mamic’s criminal activities.
Grabar-Kitarovic fired SOA’s chief Dragan Lozančić in February 2016.
Consequently, Croatia’s police refused to provide details of Mamic’s hosting of Grabar-Kitarovic’s birthday celebration to the parliament’s Committee for Suppression of Conflict of Interest.
In July 2019, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic visited GP Krk’s headquarters and met with the Director of GP Krk Josip Puric, just months after GP Krk was reported for money laundering and extorting US investors.
In July 2019, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic visited GP Krk’s headquarters and met with the Director of GP Krk Josip Purić, just months after GP Krk was reported for money laundering and extorting US investors.
Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic received campaign funds from Croatian Construction company GP Krk. GP Krk receives every EU and US-funded construction contract in the City of Rijeka and beyond. GP Krk, in collusion with the City’s officials, have been reported for money laundering through real estate developments.
Grabar-Kitarovic appointed Damir Miskovic as Croatia’s Honorary Consul to Nigeria in March 2016. Damir Miskovic is the right-hand man of Gabriele Volpi, who has been in Nigeria’s oil business for over 25 years. Both men invested in building soccer stadia in the City of Rijeka, which were built by the construction company GP Krk, and were flagged for suspected money laundering and City officials’ abuse of power.
According to the report by the The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in 2010:
“Keeping Foreign Corruption out of the United States: Four Case Histories”
“Mr. Volpi is currently the managing director and chief executive officer of Intels… Intels is now one of the largest Nigerian companies in the African oil industry, operating oil terminals and oil services zones at ports in several countries including Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe. ExxonMobil told the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, that in less than three years, from 2006 to the fall of 2008, it paid more than $245 million to Intels West Africa Inc. and Intels Nigeria Inc., two Intels affiliates, for providing oil services in Nigeria. According to the report, these were, “Payments to senior foreign political figures, their relatives, or entity owned or controlled by such persons, PSI-Exxon-0118–19.”
Mr. Volpi has been the managing director and chief executive officer of Nicotes, later re-named Intels.
Miskovic has worked for Volpi since 1990, and has been an Executive Director of Orlean Invest West Africa Limited (Orlean), which is owned by Gabriele Volpi.
Damir Miskovic with the Chinese delegation, trying to sell his concession to the soccer stadium in the kleptocratic City of Rijeka.
Courting China’s Communist Party Officials and Selling Croatia as a Beachhead for the West’s Adversary
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s Actions Undermined America and the European Union’s Strategic Interests
U.S. Congressman Lamborn raised concerns regarding the ties of Croatian politicians to Moscow, China and alleged criminal networks.
“The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.” — FBI
Following the disturbing pattern of courting nations which vehemently oppose the West and undermine US and European Union interests, Grabar-Kitarovic augmented a foreign policy that included developing a robust cooperative relationship with China and top officials of the Chinese Communist Party.
At the very moment that US Secretary Mike Pompeo was warning European partners, and specifically NATO members, against doing business with Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, and being vigilant about China’s schemes with European governments, in a rebuke of America’s leadership and EU concerns, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic welcomed top Chinese Communist Party Officials to Zagreb, Croatia.
On March 27, 2019, Reuters reported,
“The United States has made progress in convincing the European Union of the risks in using technology from China’s Huawei and will continue to push them on the issue, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.”
The Reuters further stated, “Pompeo has warned that the United States will not partner with or share information with countries that adopt Huawei Technologies Co Ltd system.”
On April 10, 2019 in Zagreb, Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and the Croatian government rolled out the red carpet for China’s top politicians and the Chinese Communist Party’s leaders. Grabar-Kitarovic paid an earlier state visit to China during October 14–18, 2015.
The Chinese media reports highlighted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit with Grabar Kitarovic | April 10, 2019:
“Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Croatia for an official visit and to attend the eighth leaders’ meeting of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) in the Croatian seaside city of Dubrovnik. This was the first Chinese premier to pay a visit to Croatia since the two countries established diplomatic ties 27 years ago.”
A Chinese media group also noted,
“One of the agreements was on cooperation between Croatia’s state bureau for digitalization and the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in a recent exclusive interview with CGTN said the ties between Croatia and China are “really excellent and there are no open issues, nothing to resolve.”
The Chinese media report also highlighted Grabar-Kitarovic statement:
“There will be a lot of topics on the table to discuss from our bilateral relationship to global issues, issues of global security and stability to the situation in our respective regions, but most importantly in the context of our bilateral relations, further deepening and widening of the relationship in particular to include trade and investment.”
The Croatian Bridge | €357 Million Paid by EU Taxpayers and Built by China
A report from the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, DC, shared these pertinent details on the first major EU-funded, China-built infrastructure project, the Pelješac Bridge in Croatia:
“The first major EU infrastructure project to be awarded to a Chinese construction firm was the Pelješac Bridge in Croatia, which was up to 85 percent funded by EU Cohesion Policy funds and was constructed by CRBC. This precedent-setting construction project has been highlighted by PRC and Croatian leadership alike as ushering in a new era of cooperation. Li has touted the project as China’s “rainbow” bridge into Europe, and it is clear that the Chinese Communist Party views this tender as its gateway into the common market.”
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s message relayed by Chinese media: “He cited the Peljesac Bridge being built by a Chinese company in southern Croatia as an instance, saying that the project, which uses European Union (EU) standards and funds, is a historic breakthrough in China-Croatia cooperation and sets an example for China-Croatia-EU cooperation.”
The report from the Chinese media further explained, “Grabar-Kitarovic said in her meeting with Li. She added that it has shown the capabilities of Chinese enterprises, set up a new model for bilateral cooperation, and is expected to deliver a positive demonstration effect.”
In a US published report on the concerns of China’s influence in Croatia, the study relayed the following:
“Chinese influence in Croatia is primarily focused on high-ranking officials in government. Chinese diplomats regularly meet with ministers, mayors, and MEPs. Also of interest are former high-ranking officials and relevant figures from business, sports, and academia.”
The report brought further attention to the Croatian and Chinese cooperation and the Balkan nation rolling out the red-carpet to a large group of Chinese businesses and government officials:
“In April 2019, China’s prime minister, Li Keqiang, visited Croatia with a 250-strong delegation as part of a summit of the 16/17 +1 initiative. Li met with the Croatian prime minister, the president, the speaker of the parliament, and other officials and signed six agreements related to railways, agriculture, digital technology, and tourism. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on investments; Huawei Croatia signed a memorandum to encourage cooperation in digitization, and China and Croatia signed a memorandum on cooperation in sports. Since 2019, Huawei has sponsored the Seeds for the Future program in cooperation with Croatia’s Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society. The program was meant to include annual study trips to China for Croatian students, but because of the pandemic, the only trip so far was in 2019. In three years, 36 Croatian IT students have gone through Seeds for the Future.”
US Role in Deploying MLAT
Croatia was the last EU member country that signed the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the United States (ratified in 2023). The MLAT has to be initiated by the US side in order to deal with transnational money laundering and organized crime in Croatia.
While the US is the most generous nation when it comes to spending of US taxpayer funds in other countries, America’s private investments and exports of goods and services are at a disadvantage because American entities have to abide by the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) and do not pay bribes.
Regrettably, US taxpayer funds (through US government and US funded multilateral institutions) and various EU taxpayer funds on one side, and money laundering on the other, are sustaining the same corrupt structures in power for decades in Croatia.
From Croatia’s perspective and their politicians, they do not need European or US private investments. Their needs are covered through dependency on free money (US taxpayer grants), cheap money (US taxpayer loans via the World Bank, IMF, EBRD, etc.) and investments that bring bribes through money laundering of illicit gains originating from Russia, China, Nigeria, Iran, Czech Republic, Austria/Liechtenstein, and the Balkan organized crime, among others.
Croatia — A Haven for Oligarchs from Eastern Europe and Transnational Organized Crime
Croatia has become a haven for oligarchs from Eastern Europe and transnational organized crime networks. Furthermore, national and local politicians at the county, municipal and city levels along with their private partners in crime reap huge profits from a booming real estate market drawing in suspect funds from illicit gain.
The unintended consequences of EU and US “free and cheap money” in Croatia and the Balkans further erodes the rule of law and protection of property rights thus exacerbating kleptocracy — creating more rogue and mafia states and leading to the destabilization of the entire region.
The Western Balkans remains one of the most vulnerable soft targets for the Kremlin’s ongoing hybrid war against the EU and the democratic West.
