European Court asked to intervene over suspected Russian abduction of 19-year-old Ukrainian
There is still no information about the whereabouts of 19-year-old Pavlo Hryb, ten days after he entered Belarus and vanished. Given the strong grounds for fearing that the young man has been abducted by Russia’s FSB, and that his life could be in danger without badly needed medication, his family and lawyer have asked the European Court of...
Geolocating Libya’s Social Media Executioner
Warning: this article contains graphic material. Update: Incident One, Four and Five have been geolocated. In Short: The International Criminal Court issued its first ever arrest warrant solely based on social media evidence; This warrant is a significant development and aligns the Court with the realities of today’s conflict zones; All...
A Reminder to Continue Ukraine Reforms
Without renewed domestic commitment to reforms, the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will bring about little change in Ukraine. …read more Source: Carnegie...
Kleptocracy Weekly: September 1, 2017
Kleptocracy Weekly is KI’s round-up of news and features on how globalized corruption threatens democracy, compiled by Nate Sibley. Anonymous Companies “It is difficult to imagine: A rogue nation chose to evade sanctions not by hiding money in North Korea or China or Russia but in the United States. And they did so in our home state of New...
Investigations Into the Corrupt Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Sectors
The fuel and energy-related industries are allegedly corrupted areas of the Ukrainian economy, a recent report suggests. According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the damages amount to UAH 20 billion (€650 million). “Out of that damage caused to state enterprises due to corruption offences investigated by NABU, UAH 11.8...
Watch List Findings: Sept. 2, 2017
What follows are the preliminary findings for issues identified in the daily Watch Lists this week. We are only sending findings that we regard as significant or potentially significant to keep this list manageable. We have findings for all the Watch List items. Should you be interested in findings not listed here, please contact us and we will...
Advisory Council
The Kleptocracy Initiative has welcomed some distinguished new members to its Advisory Council. Michael Mandelbaum, Minxin Pei, Andrew Wedeman, Michael Weiss, Margaret Whitehead, and Ilya Zaslavaskiy join a team of distinguished experts and thought leaders from the fields of policymaking, academia, and journalism. The Advisory Council supports...
The European Gas Markets
This document is the introduction of the book The European Gas Markets published by Palgrave Macmillan. The European gas markets are nowadays rapidly changing due to political, commercial and geopolitical evolutions. Te still-uncertain role of gas in the European energy mix after the COP-21 Paris Agreement, the evolution of the EU Energy Union,...
Legislating Morality
Politics Throughout Putin’s regime, and particularly since the annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin’s defense of a specifically Russian view of morality, religion, and ethics—and by extension, Russianness itself—has been key to the government’s message and its widespread popularity. Its rhetoric of traditionalist morality functions...
Kleptocracy Daily: August 31, 2017
Much of Paul Manafort’s work for controversial overseas clients had a common theme: Oleg Deripaska’s backing. Despite the limelight, Manafort appears to still be putting together “major real estate deals with a motley crew from across the globe,” with the help of a talented fixer. (WSJ, Real Deal) Ukraine’s leadership is...
