A Biden-era USAID award is still sending American taxpayer money to a Serbian group linked to student protests that now threaten Aleksandar Vučić’s long hold on power ahead of this weekend’s vote.
Serbia heads into parliamentary elections on October 25 with so-called student protests spreading across the country and a polling gap that has put Vučić’s party on the defensive. Federal spending records show the Center for Research, Transparency, and Accountability, known as CRTA, has already drawn more than $832,000 from a U.S. Agency for International Development award and still has roughly $2.8 million obligated.
Matt Mercer reported that CRTA is known to stand behind the student-led protests and has published a list of “student demands” aimed at the government. The same outfit tracks elections, media, and public opinion on its website. The money trail runs straight through USAID’s “Elections Integrity Activity” grant, first awarded in 2023 and expanded on January 17, 2025, three days before President Trump took the oath for his second term.
That timeline matters. The expansion locked in additional U.S. funding just as the political calendar in Belgrade was heating up. Vučić stepped down as president in late September so he could run for prime minister. A poll published earlier this month showed his Serbian Progressive Party trailing student-supported candidates by two percentage points.
Reuters described the scale of the challenge Vučić now faces. The student protest movement has ballooned into one of the most powerful political forces in the country.
Reuters reported:
"The student protest movement has ballooned to become one of the most powerful political forces in the country and poses the greatest threat yet to the rule of Aleksandar Vučić, who has dominated Serbian politics first as prime minister, then president, since 2014."
Vučić has publicly alleged foreign involvement in efforts to destabilize Serbia through nongovernmental organizations such as CRTA. Serbian authorities treated that concern as more than rhetoric. In 2025 they sought information on the abuse of USAID funds. Prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic later spelled out the official request on television.
Stefanovic said:
"The (Serbian) Special Anti-Corruption Department... contacted the U.S. Justice Department for information concerning USAID over the abuse of funds, possible money laundering, and the improper spending of American taxpayers’ funds in Serbia."
No completed U.S. criminal case is detailed in the available record. The contact itself, however, puts the spending under an anti-corruption microscope at the exact moment street pressure and election polling are testing Vučić’s grip. Reuters coverage earlier tracked Serbian police interest in watchdog offices and USAID donations.
USASpending.gov records list CRTA as the recipient of the Elections Integrity Activity award. The figures are concrete: $832,432.47 already received, with a total of $2.8 million still obligated. USAID is the awarding agency. The open federal data source leaves little ambiguity about the dollars remaining in the pipeline.
USAID framed the work as elections integrity. CRTA’s public activity has included publishing the protest movement’s demands and maintaining a running watch on Serbian elections and media. Mercer’s reporting ties the group directly to the protests that have become the central wild card of the campaign. Vučić’s party, the SNS, now finds itself slightly behind the student-backed slate in the most recent poll cited.
American taxpayers fund that pipeline whether or not they ever hear the name CRTA. The January 2025 expansion kept the award alive after the original 2023 commitment. Three days later a new president was sworn in. The money did not automatically stop.
The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade issued a Demonstration Alert on October 16. It advised Americans in Serbia to monitor local media, avoid crowds, and stay aware of their surroundings. The alert did not say much about what past street actions have produced.
The embassy stated:
"Marches and demonstrations can be accompanied by a heavy police presence and may result in slowed or blocked traffic and public transportation due to road closures until well after the demonstration ends. Some past demonstrations have turned violent,"
Embassy guidance treated the protests as a live security issue for U.S. citizens, not a distant political sideshow. Road closures, heavy police presence, and the risk of violence are the practical consequences when large marches move through Serbian cities in the final stretch before voting.
Vučić has dominated Serbian politics since 2014, first as prime minister from 2014 to 2017 and then as president. Stepping down in late September to seek the premiership was a tactical reset ahead of the October 25 parliamentary elections. The student movement, amplified by CRTA’s visibility and demands list, has turned that reset into a genuine contest. Reuters reporting on the student surge underscored how far the challenge has climbed.
Serbia’s Special Anti-Corruption Department did not wait for election day to ask questions. It went to the U.S. Justice Department over alleged abuse of USAID funds, possible money laundering, and improper spending of American taxpayer money inside Serbia. That is the Serbian government’s stated position, delivered by its own prosecutor on television.
CRTA’s dual role, elections watchdog and publisher of student demands while being described as behind the protests, sits at the center of the dispute. USAID’s award name emphasizes integrity. The political effect inside Serbia, according to Vučić and the prosecutors who contacted Washington, looks like foreign-subsidized pressure on a sitting political order.
The funding numbers are not in dispute. USASpending.gov shows the disbursed total and the larger obligated balance. The award dates are fixed: 2023 origin, January 17, 2025 expansion. The election date is fixed: October 25. The embassy alert is fixed: October 16. The prosecutor’s statement is on the record. The poll gap is two points. Together they form a clear sequence: U.S. grant money continued to flow to an organization tied to the protests that now define the campaign.
None of this requires inventing secret motives. The public record already shows Biden-era USAID dollars still active in a foreign election season, a Serbian anti-corruption request to the Justice Department, and street marches large enough to trigger a U.S. Embassy warning. American taxpayers support the grant. Serbian voters live with the protests. Vučić’s party faces the ballot.
When Washington keeps writing checks for “elections integrity” abroad, voters at home deserve to know which groups cash them, and what those groups do when the ballots get close.
