Authoritarian regimes like Russia and China use malign finance—the funding of foreign political parties, candidates, campaigns, well-connected elites, or politically influential groups, often through non-transparent structures designed to obfuscate ties to a nation state or its proxies—to interfere in democracies. Find ASD’s work on malign finance and the threat it poses to democracy on this page.
Interference Matters
Russia Is Still Finding Willing Partners Throughout Europe
Sanctions Are A Tool, Not A Magic Wand
As Russia has menaced Ukraine with a buildup of troops in recent weeks—and even after those forces ultimately crossed the border—much media and expert commentary has focused on what the U.S. and EU sanctions response should be, analyzing its effects [...]
Kristine Berzina Discusses Germany’s Decision to Halt Nord Stream 2 on France 24
Kristine Berzina, senior fellow and head of the geopolitics team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, talks about Germany's decision to halt Nord Stream 2. [...]
Kristine Berzina Emphasizes Importance of Energy in Ukraine-Russia Crisis on France 24
Kristine Berzina, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy, joins France 24, asserting that energy revenues are of utmost importance to President Putin. As a major energy supplier to Europe, Russia favors piling on [...]
Roadmap for Reform: Engaging the OSCE in the Fight Against Strategic Corruption
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is uniquely situated and driven by its core values to combat corruption in all its forms, yet it remains an underused resource in the fight against strategic corruption. The Biden admin [...]
The Development Response to Kleptocracy and Strategic Corruption
Introduction and Summary Kleptocracies do not stop at their own borders. The same actors, networks, tactics, and resources that they wield to prevent democracy and rule of law from sprouting at home are also repurposed for foreign aggression. Whil [...]
Kristine Berzina on U.S. Discussions Over Sanctioning Nord Stream 2 on CNBC
ASD Senior Fellow Kristine Berzina says the Biden administration doesn’t want to be pushed into sanctioning Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline as leverage against Russia over the Ukraine crisis. [...]
Josh Rudolph in Foreign Policy: Call Out the Traitors
Foreign Policy brought together 10 prominent thinkers to share their most important fixes to reform the workings of democracy, defend it against its enemies at home and abroad, and ensure it survives and thrives by better serving the people it gover [...]
Looking Back: ASD Experts React to Biden’s Summit for Democracy
Last week, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden hosted a virtual Summit for Democracy with 110 countries and governments, in which he called on leaders to make commitments to bolster democracy before an in-person summit is hosted later in 2022—but did the [...]
Enablers of Malign Finance
Panelists: Will Fitzgibbon, Senior Reporter, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Sydney Freedberg, Chief Reporter, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Neil Jeans, Principal Consultant, Initialism Lakshmi Kumar, Po [...]
Josh Rudolph on a New Era for U.S. Efforts Against Kleptocracy on Making a Killing
The new US Strategy on Countering Corruption was released hours before the Summit for Democracy and promises to rewrite the rulebook on global anticorruption efforts. Josh Rudolph of the German Marshall Fund joins Casey, Nate and Paul to discuss wh [...]
What to Watch: ASD Experts Set the Stage for Biden’s Summit for Democracy
On December 9 and 10, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden will bring together leaders from 110 countries and governments for a virtual Summit for Democracy based around three key themes: defending against authoritarianism; addressing and fighting corrupt [...]
Josh Kirschenbaum Testifies Before European Parliament on Anti-Money Laundering
Statement of JOSHUA KIRSCHENBAUM Alliance for Securing Democracy, the German Marshall Fund of the United States BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC AND MONETARY AFFAIRS AND THE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS Concerning “Anti-Mon [...]