Russia has been on a steady path to authoritarianism ever since putin entered the scene 18 years ago. Since then, a new generation has entered adulthood. One that does not remember a russia before putin. As these young russian men and women enter the work force, they confront institutions in both the public and private sectors that have been completely ssimilated into putins krl kleptocontractic architecture and are left with a choice to be could he opted into this corrupt cooperated into this corrupt system or ejected from it. While putin is the central figure, hes not the only one. The strong man of the kremlin is surrounded by a loyal group of cronies who aid and abet the president. Complicit in the robbery of the russian people and the sad state of russian democracy. Moreover, these cronies enable the kremlin to export its brand of kleptocracy into neighboring countries, transforming corruption into a potent geostrategic weapon. We will establish who most strengthens and benefits from his rule. Additionally, well analyze how these cronies advance putins goals and interests. We are grateful to have such distinguished panelists with us here today. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this important issue. First we have brian, who joins us all the way from prague. Hes a senior russia analyst for rferl and also writes the power vertical blog. Prior to joining rferl in 2007, he worked for eight years for the boston globe. In the globe as moscow bureau, and later as the central and Eastern Europe correspondent based in prague. Following brian, we have elia. I understand your wife just had a baby. So thank you so very much for beings with us here today. [applause] rather than at home. We understand what a sacrifice youre making to talk about this very important topic. Who join us from the russian not the russian federation, the Free Russia Foundation. Where he is a Research Expert and hes an academy associate. In addition, he heads free speech ll c. , which runs a project on the export of corrosive practices from postsoviet states to the west. Postsoviet states to the west. Well then hear from dr. Anders who the hell jinx commission knows very, very well. Who is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a professor at georgetown university. Anders is a leading specialist on Economic Policy in russia. Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. And worked as an Economic Advisor to the president of ukraine from 1994 to 1997. Following anders, we have marias. Who joins us from vilnius, even further away than prague. Hes a senior analyst, but with a policy for institute for policy analysis and a former fellow at the Hudson Institute. A highly regarded journal frist lithuania, hes been reporting on russian domestic and Foreign Policy for over two decades. Finally, well hear from ambassador. The ambassador is one of u. S. Governments foremost experts on russia and the former soviet sphere. His career with the Foreign Service has spanned over four decades. And seven presidencies. Wow. Ending earlier this year, when he retired from his post as the state departments coordinator on sanctions policy. The very relevant father very relevant for this discussion. Well conclude with a q a session. Id like now to give the floor to our first panelist, who will provide us with an overview of the russian kleptocontractic political system. The floor is yours kleptocontractic political system. Kleptocratic political ystem. Should i start again or did everybody hear me . I cant say how delighted i am that this issue is finally getting attention. Weve been talking for the last few years a lot about the information war. Ive attended seminars and dialogues, more than ive been harping on the issue that we need to broaden the apper tour here a little bit. Information is just one of the things that the kremlin has weaponized. In my opinion, the most important thing theyve weaponized is corruption. Ill start by saying, i think its a bit misleading to characterize putins russia as simply kleptocracy. This implies that the regimes primary aim is the enrichment of the elite and i dont think thats the case. Corruption has been instrumentalized at home and weaponized abroad in russia. The domestic role of corruption is to control the elite and to maintain its loyalty. Members of the russian political elite effectively have a license to monetize their positions so long as they remain politically loyal and politically useful. To the putin regime. Only those who prove disloyal or unuseful are ever prosecuted. For corruption when theres a Corruption Case in russia, the first question i always ask myself is not, did he or she do what he or she is accused of doing, because of course they did. I say, who did they cross politically . What happened . Why are they on the outs politically . What happened here . Thats always the first question to ask when a Corruption Case bubbles up in this regime. Internationally, corruption has been weaponized and used as a tool of state craft. The kremlin seeks to capture elites and establish networks of influence abroad by ensnaring officials in corrupt deals. Im not going to get into details here because we want to keep it brief in the beginning so im going to paint in Broad Strokes and we can go go into details later. Moreover, the russian state has both kleptocratic and ideological elements to it. What i call the two russias. Sometimes kleptocratic russia and ideological russia do indeed work hand in glove. By ideological russia, i mean these projects of putins to make russia great again. To bring russia back off of its knees and to restore it to what it believes to be its rightful place as a world power. Sometimes corruption and ideology go hand in hand. But at other times the two russias are in tension with each other and operate at crosspurposes. Closely related to the weaponization of corruption is the weaponization of russian organized crime. Which is also used as a tool of state craft. But just as it is incorrect to classify russia as simply a kleptocracy, its also incorrect to classify it as a mafia state, as many kremlin watchers do. They are a state with nationalized mafia. Security services operate closely with organized crime, often facilitating their activities. As a result, the Security Services are able to establish a socalled black account. Which has untraceable cash that can be used for all sorts of off the books operations. And influence operations abroad. I can go into detailses a little bit more, but ill keep my opening remarks brief. Organized crime groups are often pressed into service to perform tasks the kremlin wants to keep its fingerprints off. Not just smuggling weapons, assassinating troublesome disdenlts in london, and so on and so forth. Weaponized corruption and organized crime are also part of a larger, noncommitic arsenal that putin is using to weaken western institutions. Other elements of this include finance, information, support for extremist Political Parties and rbling. Religion. If you want to think about the sources of putins conduct in this, why is this regime behaving this way, and you look at putin the man, id like to look at putin as a hybrid product. Hybrid is another one of the words of the past few years. Im going to put it into a whole new con tech. Putins a hybrid man. Its very stereotypical to look at putin as a project of the k. G. B. This is correct but the only part of the picture. If genelogically hes a product of the k. G. B. , sociologically hes a product of the wild 1990s. Of the darwinian criminal world that existed in cities like is the petersburg where he was deputy mayor in Saint Petersburg where he was a deputy mayor. I think this is something thats very important to understand. In conclusion, ill say that one of my favorite talking points is the headline of a piece i passed out to the other panelists here. And that is that corruption is the new communism. The kremlins black cash is the new red men also. And it has to be looked at that way. Corruption is a tool of state craft. The something that is spreading from moscow and its spreading as a toofl influence. And if you think about this, communism, despite its faults and of course they were legion, did attempt to appeal to universal human ideals and aspirations. Although in practice it often worked against these ideals. Corruption on the other hand appeals to the most universal and basist human instincts. That of agreed. Sadly, its greed. Sadly, its often in sic with in sync with human nature which makes the new red menace more dangerous than the old one. Finally, ill say corruption today is not just a matter of Good Governance anymore. Its not something we want to fight just because we want to be honest and good, although we do. Corruption is a National Security issue of the highest order. And needs to be treated as such. Thank you. Paul thank you very much, brian. For that fascinating overview. As well as the sorts of elaborations on how the regime exactly is structured, that its not simply a rule by theive, it has these ideological components to it. I read your article, corruption is the new communism today. Just an incredible piece. I think that framing the issue in those terms is precisely the way that u. S. Foreign policy need to be approaching this topic. So with that ill hand the floor to il irving a elia. Elia thank you for coming. As brian correctly said, this topic is out in the open. Everyone discussing it. And quickly transfered from not discussing it to a term which i recently heard, outrage fatigue. Everyone understands the problem, but no one knows how to handle this unbelievable flow of information about kleptocracy and what to do with it. Ive been studying this topic since at least 2011. Been a junior expert with other people and senior experts on russia and europe, warning about National Security implications of corruption for the west. Coming from postsoviet space. Even before aggression against ukraine happened, i predicted in 2013 that, especially russian pleau tock are asy, are taking their corrosive practices and corruption to europe and the u. S. Over at least 25 corrupt or corrosive channels, including media manipulation of rmation, [inaudible] universities and so forth. In this briefing i want to put forward a further warning and prediction. I think the west, especially the u. S. As leader of the democratic world, has been so negligence d appeasing of postsoviet corruption of Democratic Values under putin that even on the best case scenario, russian plutocracy will not be eradicated. The best the west can hope right now, from now on, is to try to attempt to contain negative Global Impact of rampant pmbing l umbing tocracy coming and try preserving its own Democratic Institutions. In a nut shell this problem is really no longer just about russia or postsoviet. Its really about the u. S. And the west. In my Research Paper that is slated to come out in the next i really want to emphasize the incidence of nonstate actors or supposed known state actors coming from postsoviet space. The biggest difference with the soviet union is that not only there is this seeming sort of business interactions between supposedly private sector states and in the west, but the nature f transactions has changed considerably. And there is little understanding in my view in the west, despite ample evidence hat, really from soviet times, we now see fusion of three different worlds. And values coming from postsoviet space. In one elite. So, in soviet times, we used to worlds. Ee different communist party, k. G. B. And Law Enforcement. And actual organized crime. They were actually quite antagonistic and conflicting, especially at some important points. But now i would argue that current political elite, especially in russia, but also in surrounding postsoviet states, they took the worst, but most practical, values and Business Practices from each of the free world andal maualuga mated them into one. An d [inaudible] investigative journalist [inaudible] have been showing that especially in st. Petersburg in 1990s, putin has already tested all this free world and practices from those free world. And he came to power with a team which has been experienced and used networks from all those free worlds. I think one of the important conclusions of that study and others is that we do in the Free Russia Foundation is that there are no systemic or any kind of liberals in russian government. Its a big myth. Which is still somehow spread in europe, especially in countries that like finland or germany, that still cooperate with russia on many business levels. People have been implicated in those years under putin, even in st. Petersburg. Go together with putin. I would argue recently i highly recommend a study that just came out. Its emblematic that militant security raises this question. Russian style corporate rate something one of the most widespread mechanisms of operation of especially big businesses in russia. Studdingy doesnt want to implement any consistent measures to protect businesses. Previously, last year, in the report for free russia undation [inaudible] i also argue that the term oligarch is no longer meaningful really. In fact, it is commonly widespread, but theres a dangerous mistake in the west to believe that a private businessman and market economy exists in russia. It doesnt. Its been hijacked by criminal groups. Security services. And business in russia really eans tax breaks, sponsors from kremlin, and these oligarchs are really now cash handlers of cash flows that are allowed by putin. And also kremlin has special compromising material or other leverage over their life. Even if the previously considered oligarchses, they live in the west and appear to be western business men and have looks and lifestyle and lawyers like western business men, theyre actually putins handlers. Because theyre based this russia really in russia really. But they want to spend money and sort of enjoy the best of two worlds. This brings me to my second major point in preng. Kleptocracy in russia is not something residual. I believe there are strong indicators that were passing through times when, as in 1930s, the very existence of liberal western capitalism, with s of Good Government [inaudible] i call this phenomenon g13 versus g7 in g20. In fact, g7 itself could be, you know, not seen as that much about western liberalism. If you look at countries like italy or ette. So we see that most developing countries seem to be learning worst kleptocratic government and Business Practices and capitalism based on the rule of law and proper separation of powers is no longer an ideal for societies where people have adapted to sophisticated and often seemingly comfortable and acceptable forms of state level corruption. So corruption is a new accepted norm on many, many levels in societies, both in the west and in postsoviet space and elsewhere. So together with Free Russia Foundation and the group of 2,000 activists around the world, we are preparing a launch of a Research Project called undermineness, which you mentioned in my introduction. I think this is a new term that we believe is more relevant than oligarchses and other nonstate actors. It basically shows that we have a whole group of people and actors, nonstate actors, but connected with kleptocratic regimes who actively undermine democracy in the u. S. , while enduring illicit profits in russia and spending them in the west. I believe these individuals and cooperations learned even more sophisticated financial methods to advance their own interests. There are multiple examples which i want to go into here in this session. What can we do . I have one minute to discuss this. With this outrage fatigue. I think we need a new system of containment against russian and other postsoviet kleptocracy that will enforce strictly existing laws will create more up to date laws that deal with todays International Corruption and subversion, especially in regard to unanimous companies in offshore injures dicks. Something which Kleptocracy Initiative of the Hudson Institute is doing very well and many other anticorruption groupses are now discussing in washington especially. I also think we need to build Awareness Among western general public that will link that will create this understanding, acknowledgment, in the minds of people about the link between transnational kleptocracy and erosion of democracy in the west. So far ive seen very few actual examples of it. So people in london now finally kleptocra tmbing s from around the world are raising real estate prices. I will finish my presentation with a warning that the price we pay today in the west to stop is considerable and we have to understand that there will be a price. We need to, especially in the business sector, we need to do containment. We need to really prevent some of the cash flows is considerab we have to understand especiall. But also many, many hours at Different Levels of subversion and corruption. This price is still much smaller than the one that were likely to be forced to pay tomorrow or he day after tomorrow. Paul thank you very much. I think your comment that oligarch is no longer meaningful is an extremely important point to hit home. Steven colbert recently went to russia and did a little piece on a day with oligarchs. These oligarchs arent really oligarchs. Theyre cronies of putin. Thats what they are. Its certainly not like it was and to a point still is in ukraine where the oligarchses have a competitive political environment. These guys arent competing with one another. Theyre just working for putin. Id also like to back up your comments on the work of the kleptocracy. Give a shoutout to charles davidson. I see you hiding there in the a