Category: corruption

Oligarchs ‘suffocating’ Eastern Europe’s democracies

     

Days before the hotly contested Ukrainian presidential election on March 31, incumbent Petro Poroshenko’s party faces credible allegations of voter bribery, notes Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia from 2004 until 2013…. Read more »

Corruption report shows need to ‘go tougher’ on Venezuela’s kleptocracy

     

Venezuela’s socialist regime used the nation’s state-run oil industry as a protection racket in a years’ long, systematic scheme to buy political loyalty across the hemisphere while shortchanging its own… Read more »

Venezuela ‘unraveling’: facing bleak plight?

     

The United States said Tuesday it would pull its remaining diplomatic personnel from Venezuela, rupturing relations as the country plunges deeper into chaos, the Washington Post reports: The move comes… Read more »

Kleptocracy’s ‘stark implications’ for democracy

     

The two main candidates vying to lead Africa’s most populous nation after elections this weekend offer very different choices for reforming this vital industry, between public or private sector-led development…. Read more »

Governance key to strategy for Iraq

     

Iraq’s politics, governance, and economy all pose major challenges that could leave Iraq unstable or even divide it, notes CSIS analyst Anthony H. Cordesman. Iraq’s progress towards democracy has so… Read more »

Egypt moves to enhance authoritarian rule

     

Proposed amendments to Egypt’s constitution, including granting the armed forces authority to intervene in government, would undermine judicial independence and expand executive powers that are already being abused, Human Rights… Read more »

‘A Case of Irresponsible Asset Return’ benefits Kazakhstan kleptocracy

     

Following a year-long investigation, the Corruption and Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) have published their full findings on Kazakhstan II, produced in collaboration with the Eurasia Democracy Initiative. Kazakhstan II is… Read more »

As corruption festers, democracy weakens – Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index

     

Failure to curb corruption is contributing to a worldwide crisis of democracy, according to corruption watchdog Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released on Tuesday. The CPI claims a direct… Read more »

Putin’s Russia is at ‘a dead end’

     

When the Ukrainian Orthodox Church broke from Russia’s, it dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to portray his country as one people with a single identity, argues Michael… Read more »