Community of Democracies needed now more than ever
When the Community of Democracies first gathered in Warsaw seventeen years ago, no one could be certain that the Community would continue for very long, let alone develop and… Read more »
Category: KLEPTOCRACY
South Africa’s kleptocracy: the end is nigh for ANC?
As South Africa’s labor unions prepare mass protests against state capture and corruption, the country’s troubled democracy faces the prospect of “more kleptocracy, more division, fewer reforms and a path… Read more »
Kleptocracy a corrosive threat to democracy, forum told
Former Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohamad says the opposition alliance campaigning to topple the country’s corruption-tainted leader can win the next general elections and pull Malaysia back from a slide into… Read more »
Malaysia, soccer highlight corruption’s corrosive impact on democracy
The timing of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s White House visit seems especially questionable, considering that it will come just a month after the Justice Department announced that it was proceeding… Read more »
Globalization of venality: kleptocracy’s corrosive impact on democracy
With popular dissatisfaction over corruption increasing around the world, the term “kleptocracy” is often used as a catchall to describe any form of corrupt behavior by national elites. Yet transnational… Read more »
Azerbaijan authorities deny ‘laundromat’ slush fund
Azerbaijan‘s government has denied reports that the ruling kleptocracy used a secret $2.9 billion slush fund for years to pay off European politicians and make luxury purchases, RFE/RL reports: The… Read more »
Navalny ‘punches higher’: raising prospects for Russia’s democratic movement?
Aleksei Navalny, the charismatic anticorruption crusader and persistent thorn in the Kremlin’s side, has published exposés exploring the wealth of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and… Read more »
Trial reveals infighting within Kremlin kleptocracy
Signs of Kremlin infighting surfaced on Wednesday as Alexei Ulyukaev, the former Russian minister of economic development, told a Moscow court that Igor Sechin, the head of the state oil company Rosneft, had… Read more »
Weaponizing kleptocracy: the four circles of ‘Russia’s Crony Capitalism’
Russia’s political shift to an authoritarian kleptocracy started with Vladimir Putin’s prosecution and jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, according to Bill Browder, CEO, Hermitage Capital, and author of “Red Notice: A… Read more »
A new era of competition: democrats vs. autocrats – and illiberals
With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that democracies long failed to realize that a new era of competition was underway between autocratic and democratic states, notes Christopher Walker,… Read more »