Because nothing says “environmental stewardship” like a casino and a golf course on a former Soviet-era chemical weapons testing site like Sazan Island.

It is a tale as old as time, or at least as old as the mid-2020s, which, in the timeline of modern real estate development, is basically the Jurassic Period.

Picture this: You are Jared Kushner. You’ve had a busy few years. You’ve successfully solved the Middle East, streamlined the federal government, and likely reorganized your sock drawer with the efficiency of a Swiss train conductor. Naturally, you find yourself on a boat in the Adriatic Sea, because that is where people like you spend their Tuesdays. You decide to jump into the water for a casual swim, and—oops!—you accidentally discover an entire island.

It’s like finding a twenty-dollar bill in your winter coat, only the twenty-dollar bill is Sazan Island, a pristine, protected, and historically significant stretch of Albanian wilderness that has been blissfully uninhabited since the Soviet Union stopped using it to test biological and chemical weapons.

“Wow,” you think, hiking to the summit barefoot, because that’s what visionaries do—they don’t wear shoes, they absorb the terrain through their soles. “This place would look so much better with a swim-up bar, an 800-room hotel, and a casino where the chips are shaped like endangered pelicans.”

And just like that, the “Flamingo Revolution” was born.

The “I Swam Into It” Business Model

In the world of high-stakes international investment, there are two ways to acquire land. There is the boring way: conducting environmental impact studies, engaging in public consultations, and respecting local land rights. Then, there is the “Kushner Method”: you take a swim, you see a nice rock, and you assume the universe—and the Albanian government—has cleared the path for you to turn it into a billionaire’s playground.

Prime Minister Edi Rama, a man who has held onto power since 2013 with the grip of a man who knows exactly where the bodies are........

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