Category: corruption

Putin’s ‘formidable influence machine’ at work in French poll

     

Russia, or at least its state-controlled news media, has been interfering in the French presidential election, the New York Times reports: Cécile Vaissié, a professor of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet… Read more »

Time to make countering kleptocracy a priority

     

Following the ousting of Pravin Gordhan as South Africa’s finance minister in the recent cabinet reshuffle and the downgrade by ratings agencies, fears that South Africa under President Jacob Zuma… Read more »

Arab civil society crucial for democracy

     

Popular protests against corruption and curbs on freedom of expression are indications of the increasingly authoritarian rule of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, observers suggest. A Palestinian author is hiding in an… Read more »

Ukraine cracks down on anticorruption crusaders

     

A recent legislative amendment requiring activists and journalists reporting on government corruption to file public declarations of their personal assets is vague and could be used to deter or punish… Read more »

Putin critic Navalny jailed as mass protests ‘energize Russian opposition’

     

A day after Russia saw its largest wave of unsanctioned protests in years, opposition leaders on Monday cheered the turnout as a sign of widespread dissatisfaction with President Vladi­mir Putin…. Read more »

Lebanon’s emerging protest movement prompts anti-corruption pledge

     

Lebanon’s government has vowed to end corruption following a week of street protests. The protesters were demonstrating against tax hikes which the government claims are necessary to fund an overdue… Read more »

How to curb kleptocrats’ ‘existential threat to democracy’

     

The irony is that in the century since the Russian Revolution, the “soft” democracies have endured, and the communist system that has collapsed. But the inheritors of the NKVD mantle—the… Read more »