Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #CovertForeignMoney
Most recents (5)
Over the past 24 hours, I’ve been asked by journalists all over the world whether my research suggests their country might be among the two dozen countries where Russian money has infiltrated politics. Nowhere is this question coming up more than in Italy. reuters.com/world/europe/r…
The US intel assessment reportedly names countries included in my research, like Montenegro & Madagascar, plus some new ones, like Albania, Ecuador, & an unnamed Asian country (where the Russian ambassador gave millions in cash to a presidential candidate).washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
To see the 33 countries identified in my report on #CovertForeignMoney as having receiving political financing from Kremlin-linked actors, see where the red arrows point to in the map below. One of these target countries is Italy. 
Strong move for the USG to disclose this information, showing how the aggressive approach to declassifying Kremlin covert ops—which worked well in the run-up to the war in Ukraine—can be broadly extended to informing voters of assaults on democracy. 👏👏👏washingtonpost.com/politics/us-ru…
The intelligence community is right to point to 2014 as the year when the Kremlin dramatically escalated the scope of its financial interference operations.
Putin authorized campaigns against Europe in 2014, the United States in 2016, and Africa in 2018.
Putin authorized campaigns against Europe in 2014, the United States in 2016, and Africa in 2018.
Half of all financial interference in the world involves Russia targeting Europe, but China does it too against Australia, New Zealand, and Czechia. And both regimes bribe African leaders. The most common target of malign finance—hit more than 25 times—is the United States.
Terrific new paper on how foreign powers spend money undermining EU democracy, with a dozen citations of #CovertForeignMoney.
As with my two expert testimonies, this work was requested by @EP_Democracy, which is shoring up EU democracy while the US Senate is gridlocked over #S1.
As with my two expert testimonies, this work was requested by @EP_Democracy, which is shoring up EU democracy while the US Senate is gridlocked over #S1.
Here's Tom Morley and my research report on #CovertForeignMoney, which surveys more than 100 cases of malign finance, buckets the activity into the seven most common legal loopholes, and presents policy solutions we developed with almost 100 top experts.⬇️securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/covert-foreign…
Six of our proposed solutions are covered within #S1, and five are included @Sen_JoeManchin's proposed selection of voting rights protections:
✅ SHIELD Act
✅ Honest Ads Act
✅ PAID AD Act
✅ DISCLOSE Act
✅ CEOs certify no foreign donations funneled
❌ FEC structural reform
✅ SHIELD Act
✅ Honest Ads Act
✅ PAID AD Act
✅ DISCLOSE Act
✅ CEOs certify no foreign donations funneled
❌ FEC structural reform
Thank you @freedomhouse, @CSIS, and @McCainInstitute, for citing our work at @SecureDemocracy on #CovertForeignMoney to explain why elections need defending in your excellent new report on democracy and authoritarianism!
The fact that #CovertForeignMoney is now viewed as a top vector of interference shows how far we've come in seeing the financial threat, like how we realized in 2017-2018 that it wasn't just "hacking" but also social media disinfo. Here's our full report. securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/covert-foreign…
The European Parliament is halfway through an 18-month process of using our research on #CovertForeignMoney as the basis for policy reforms & common EU standards to close all of the loopholes through which foreign donors covertly fund political activities. europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_…
Authoritarians have spent more than $300 million interfering in politics more than 100 times in 33 countries over the past decade.
We bucketed the cases into the top 7 legal loopholes and consulted 90+ experts to craft targeted policy fixes.
New Report: securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/covert-foreign…
We bucketed the cases into the top 7 legal loopholes and consulted 90+ experts to craft targeted policy fixes.
New Report: securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/covert-foreign…
I told @ak_mack that covert foreign money is just as threatening as online interference and it would be comparatively easier to build resilience to these financial weapons by closing legal loopholes. foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/18/leg…
This interference tool, which we call "malign finance," is less studied but just as common as cyber and disinfo. In a typical case, a regime oligarch funnels $1 million to a favored political party (although buying influence in a national election costs more like $3-15 million).
