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Rudy is too busy for public politics these days (and things are more lucrative behind the scenes) ...

Serbia’s Mayor

Rudy Giuliani’s authoritarian clients.

The New Republic
By Andrew Kirtzman
July 13, 2012

EVERY WEEK, thousands of Serbians bundle up in bed and flip on their televisions for their fix of “Evening with Ivan Ivanovic,” a cheesy “Late Show” knockoff complete with a live studio audience, a rock band, and an eager host clasping a coffee mug in front of a fake Belgrade skyline.

One evening this spring, Ivanovic proudly announced that his guest would be the first American ever to appear on the show. With gusto, the band struck up a brassy rendition of “New York, New York” and Rudy Giuliani, wearing his familiar toothy grin, descended a bright, glowing staircase to wild cheers. Ivanovic appeared starstruck, hitting Giuliani up for help landing a guest spot on Letterman. But he also seemed rather perplexed about what America’s Mayor was doing there. “We’re here to give Mr. Vucic, who is running for mayor, advice about economic development,” Giuliani explained.

Mr. Vucic—his first name is Aleksandar—is well-known to Ivanovic’s viewers. As Slobodan Milosevic’s minister of information, the former ultranationalist radical authored the notorious Information Law banning criticism of the government. Now he had brought Giuliani to Serbia to boost his campaign for the mayoralty of Belgrade. Vucic was running on the same ticket as presidential candidate Tomislav Nikolic—also known as “The Undertaker.” Like Vucic, Nikolic is a former member of the murderous Milosevic regime and an ex-acolyte of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, who was recently convicted on contempt charges by a war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Earlier in the day, both men appeared with Giuliani at a news conference and introduced him as their “economic development adviser.”

Vucic’s opponent, the incumbent mayor, Dragan Djilas, had sarcastically suggested that afternoon that Vucic give Giuliani a tour of the bombed-out buildings that still remain from the NATO airstrikes Giuliani once supported. “How do you feel about [the bombings] now, after all this time has passed, after thirteen years?” Ivanovic asked. “I think the mayor should forget about it and move on to the future,” Giuliani shot back. There was a smattering of applause from the audience before Giuliani resumed his recounting of Compstat and other greatest hits from his tenure.

Giuliani may have been a hit on the show, but the U.S. Embassy in Serbia wasn’t so enthusiastic. On the day of the press conference, it issued a disavowal of his activities. Its displeasure most likely stemmed from the lingering questions about Vucic and Nikolic and their connection with Milosevic’s brutal reign. In recent years, both men have sought to repackage themselves as moderates. But many Serbians have been skeptical of this claim, and Giuliani’s appearance provided the candidates with a valuable endorsement at the height of their election campaigns. In late May, Vucic lost, but Nikolic won the presidency and a few weeks later denied on state television that atrocities had been committed in Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces slaughtered 8,000 Muslims in 1995. “These are thugs,” says Tanya Domi, a Columbia University professor who worked in Sarajevo for the Clinton State Department. “What Giuliani is doing is shameful.”

RUDY GIULIANI talked about becoming president ever since he was a student at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn. But when he had his best shot at the office in 2008, entering the race as the Republican front-runner, he appeared unprepared and infuriatingly blasé. (Debate moderator: “Would the day that Roe v. Wade is repealed be a good day for Americans?” Giuliani: “It would be OK.”) In retrospect, it’s clear that by 2008 Giuliani’s almost primal pursuit of political power had started to give way to a more tangible goal: money.

In the years between the end of his term as New York City mayor and the start of the 2008 race, Giuliani built a consulting firm that grossed $100 million, according to The Washington Post. Giuliani Partners, composed of its namesake and his City Hall inner circle, leveraged the September 11 hero’s prestige, influence, and expertise on behalf of a wide array of corporations and foreign governments. Investigative reporters dined out for years on exposés about his work for questionable clients like the manufacturer of Oxycontin and the government of Qatar, and portrayed his strategic advice to the leaders of crime-ridden capitals such as Mexico City as little more than vain regurgitations of his zero-tolerance policies. Business dried up after his presidential campaign foundered, and loyalists from his City Hall days headed for the exits; joined his law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani; or, in the case of Bernie Kerik, went to jail. But Giuliani never stopped his consulting work ...

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