Category: corruption

Xi’s new ‘core’ leader status highlights China’s power struggle

     

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has already grasped more power more quickly than his two recent predecessors, and he has shown a taste for audacious decisions and a loathing for dissent…. Read more »

Bleak prospects for Putinism – and Russian democracy

     

Russian President Vladimir Putin used to seem invincible. Today, he and his regime look enervated, confused, and desperate. Increasingly, both Russian and Western commentators suggest that Russia may be on… Read more »

Dawning of a new era? Geopolitical and vox populi risks converge

     

Once largely confined to less-transparent emerging market economies, the post-global financial crisis saw the return of political risks to the advanced democracies as well, while challengers to Western liberalism continue… Read more »

Quiet consensus against Palestinian elections

     

It’s rare these days to find anything that Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. and Israel agree on. And yet when it comes to elections there is a  choosing their… Read more »

Argentina’s Macri: taking a lead, making a difference

     

Argentina has gone further than other Latin American states to snub Venezuela’s Chavista establishment over its violations of human rights and democracy, notes analyst Mac Margolis: Recently elected President Mauricio… Read more »

Challenging Moldova’s pro-Western facade

     

An unknown assailant threw a grenade at the house of the governor of Moldova’s central bank overnight, RFE/RL reports: Bank chief Dorin Dragutanu and his family were asleep when the… Read more »

Fearing social instability, China waging ‘lawfare’ on NGOs

     

China’s Communist authorities are intensifying a crackdown on dissent, civil society and growing labor unrest, reflecting the ruling party’s concern that economic restructuring and dislocation will “threaten social stability.” “If… Read more »

Egypt’s durable Arab Spring: fear explains revolution’s failure?

     

  Today’s anniversary of the 2011 Egyptian revolution—which led in quick succession to the overthrow of longtime President Hosni Mubarak, the election of the Muslim Brotherhood–affiliated candidate Mohamed Morsi, and… Read more »

Oil price collapse good news for Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts

     

The global collapse of oil prices is good news for Ukraine, says Anders Åslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How… Read more »