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In April 2021, during an official visit from Bahrain, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was given a curved saber made of yellow gold,
decorated with pearls. It weighed more than 1.6 kilograms and came with a certificate of authenticity. Its declared value: 3.54 million
dinars—around $35,600. No other gift reported by a public official in the past decade was worth more.
The next day, Vučić received two saluki puppies, one male and one female, with pedigree documentation. On Instagram,
he posted a photo holding the dogs and called them “the most beautiful gift from a friend.” He wrote that he would try to
keep them in Jajinci (a quiet Belgrade suburb where his parents live), and take care of them himself.
But he wasn’t allowed to.
At the time, the average monthly salary in Serbia was 64,948 dinars—about $653. By law, officials can only keep gifts worth up
to 10 percent of that amount. The puppies, valued at 600,000 dinars, were nearly ten times over the legal limit. And while Vučić shared
the moment publicly, his official asset report told a different story: according to the record he is legally required to file,
the dogs were not kept. They became state property.
This is just one example from a dataset of nearly 5,000 gifts received by Serbian officials over the last ten years. Here's what else
the data reveals.
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Between 2015 and 2024, 171 Serbian officials reported receiving gifts worth over $470,000. But the value wasn’t spread
evenly across years—or across people.
One year stands out: 2021.
It wasn’t the year with the most gifts, but it was the year
with the expensive ones. A few high-value items pushed the total sharply up.
Other high-value gifts that year included a crystal clock worth nearly $6,000, a gold map of Bahrain mounted on a wooden base and decorated with 30 cultured
pearls, and a custom-made chess set featuring historical scientists like Einstein and Marie Curie, created to mark 75 years of Russia’s nuclear industry.
Most were received by President Aleksandar Vučić, but ministers Nikola Selaković and Aleksandar Vulin were also among the officials who
reported valuable protocol gifts.
President Aleksandar Vučić alone received more in gift value than the other 170 officials combined.
His declarations include protocol books and plaques, but also gold, purebred dogs, and other unique items
rarely seen in public records. The scale of that imbalance becomes clear when comparing individual totals.
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Still, most of the gifts never make it to officials’ homes.
By law, anything worth more than ten percent of the average monthly salary must be handed over to the state within eight days.
The rule applies even to protocol gifts, unless they’re of low enough value, and even then, there’s a yearly limit.
In their reports, officials mostly stated that they followed the law.
The registry shows that the vast majority of them did not keep the gifts.
But what happens after that is unclear.
The data doesn’t show where the items end up, how they’re stored, or who takes care of them, whether it’s a ceremonial helmet or
two purebred puppies from the beginning of the story.
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Vučić tops the list not just in the total value of gifts,
but also in the number of individual items he received.
Behind him are mostly ministers and other senior officials, some active, others former.
Among the ten officials who received the most valuable gifts, one is a woman: Ana Brnabić, former Prime Minister of Serbia.
When looking beyond the top, the imbalance becomes even more apparent. Female officials consistently receive fewer gifts than their
male colleagues—and the gifts they do receive are generally of lower value. This pattern holds across nearly a decade of declarations.
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Explore More
The full data analysis is available on
GitHub, including:
- Top recipients and the most valuable gifts
- Unreported values and missing data
- Charts by year, category, and public office
The analysis was done in Python using Jupyter Notebook.
