One of the (many) things we discuss on the klepto reputation-laundering front in this week's episode: universities.
Specifically, how kleptos have turned to Western universities to whitewash their reputation, impact future scholars, and gain access to Western policy-makers.
On the topic of oligarchs, kleptocrats, and the like using American and British universities to launder their reputations, can't recommend enough this paper:
One of the key challenges in monitoring financial flows into American/British schools is actually disentangling "foreign" and "domestic" flows.
I.e., Qatar- and China-linked funding use Western shell companies or offshore entities to obscure the source of the money.
Fundraising at U.S./U.K. universities is "increasingly internationalized." For instance, it's now estimated that "more than one-third of funding to U.K. universities came from China."
But much of the data remains opaque.
(Universities are only one area of the non-profit sector that remains wide open to kleptocratic money—see this piece from me and @dszakonyi on Russian oligarchs donating hundreds of millions to American non-profits: foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/30/ame…)
"Several [American university administrators] mentioned that some universities were known to have thresholds for foreign donations that would all but guarantee admission to the donor's persons of interest."
We talk plenty about how broken FARA was for years. But look at how broken foreign donation reporting requirements are for US universities.
*Billions of dollars* in foreign donations went unreported—from places like China/Saudi Arabia, to places like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.
It's not just that foreign sources of financing are opaque at elite universities. Even the *policies* are often opaque.
Out of 20 top American universities, only *one* publicly addresses donations from non-U.S. sources.
And it's not just donations from kleptocrats.
Here's Rice University's @bakerinstitute whitewashing the longest-serving dictator in the world, claiming the dictator is "building a strong foundation for the future of the country."
But few donations to elite Western universities are as egregious as Cambridge University and Ukrainian oligarch Dmitro Firtash.
Firtash "appears to have used the donations to garner legal standing... to pursue legal action" against investigative journalists.
Firtash is sanctioned by Ukraine and is wanted by the US on high-level bribery charges.
Yet Cambridge still refers to Firtash as a "prominent Ukrainian businessman," whose "generous benefaction" has "opened up new possibilities to teaching and research." cam.ac.uk/research/news/…
‘In a letter released by a bipartisan group of House of Representatives lawmakers on June 22, they also suggested that Austria's judiciary had been corrupted by Dmytro Firtash’ rferl.org/a/pressure-whi…
If you're interested in more on how kleptocrats launder their reputations via American and British universities:
The Eric Adams indictment has now been unsealed - the first time in American history a sitting mayor has ever been formally accused of being an effective foreign agent. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2517…
Adams allegedly liaised directly with a "senior" Turkish official, who organized "many straw donations" to Adams - as well as provided "free or discounted" travel on Turkish Airlines, taking Adams and his friends around the world, with free stays at "opulent hotels."
And here's what Turkey received in return: fast-track approval for the biggest Turkish consulate anywhere in the world, in New York City.
"In exchange for free travel and other travel-related bribes in 2021 and 2022 arranged by the Turkish Official, ADAMS did as instructed."
Spending decades ignoring Russian brutality against Alaska Natives is bad enough.
But overlooking the topic meant Americans missed an opportunity to understand more about Russian colonialism—and the outright imperialism still driving Russia. politico.com/news/magazine/…
Enslavement. Massacres. Hostage-taking and sexual violence—and clear signs of genocide. All in the name of stripping Alaska Natives of their wealth.
Russia’s conquest of Alaska was as colonial as it comes. And it was no better, or worse, than other European colonialism.
I'd forgotten that Jim Mattis was a military advisor to the UAE *before* he was appointed Defense Secretary—and never publicly disclosed that relationship.
'The most prominent American cheerleader of the Emirati armed forces is former defense secretary Jim Mattis... [Mattis] again extolled Sheikh Mohamed and downplayed concerns about human rights in the UAE' washingtonpost.com/investigations…
The UAE's operations in DC is one of the—maybe *the*—most successful foreign influence and infiltration operation of the past decade.
An adviser as defense secretary, and another Trump insider as an agent. Millions saturating think tanks and universities. An army of lobbyists.
We're starting to see the contours of how the Russian elite is going to pin this (ongoing, eventual) loss in Ukraine on Putin. (See: ft.com/content/800025…)
It is, to pick a term, bullshit. They were all fully on board with Russia's initial invasion, and moves to carve Ukraine.
The only reason gullible Westerners may buy this line—"It was Putin, it wasn't us!"—is because there's still a failure to recognize this invasion began not a year ago, but in 2014.
Russia's invasion began when troops rolled into southern Ukraine, and first stole Ukrainian land.
And guess what? The Kremlin's invasion was **insanely popular in Russia**. Putin's new social contract laid its cornerstone on this invasion (the "Crimean Consensus").
Beginning to carve up Ukraine was arguably the single most popular thing Putin ever did.
There are three major reasons Western views have shifted on Ukraine retaking Crimea:
1) Military necessity. So long as Russia retains Crimea, it will be a forward operating base for Russian troops to rest and resupply—a dagger aimed directly at the rest of Ukraine.
2) Economic reconstruction. So long as Russia retains Crimea, it can effectively suffocate a rebuilding Ukrainian economy—all while destabilizing Black Sea maritime security.
As @general_ben told me, “Crimea is decisive for this war.”
Between Navalny calling to respect Ukraine’s 1991 borders (Crimea!) and Khodorkovsky gesturing at potential independence for the North Caucasus, been one of the most interesting few days for Russian opposition in… some time.