Boom—@POTUS opens the #SummitforDemocracy by unveiling his Initiative for Democratic Renewal—a plan to invest $424mn in a flotilla of 29 funds/programs to support independent media, anticorruption, democratic reformers, free internet, & electoral integrity!whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
1⃣ Independent Media
@USAID will:
✅ Give $30mn to @FundFreeMedia
✅ Spend $5mn launching a Media Viability Accelerator
✅ Spent $9mn on a Defamation Defense Fund
@StateDept will:
✅ Dedicate $3.5mn to a Journalism Protection Platform
✅ Engage with the Media Freedom Coalition
2⃣ Anticorruption
@USAID to launch programs w/ $5mn protecting whistleblowers/activists, $16mn on transnational corruption, $12mn on resilient policy, $18mn on rapid response.
@StateDept spends $15mn against safe havens, $7mn on PPPs.
@StateDept will spend:
✅ $5mn on a LGBTQI+ fund
✅ $10mn for embattled CSOs
✅ $1mn for career pros in closed spaces
@USAID will spend:
✅ $15mn for nonviolent social movements
USG will spend:
✅ $34mn on women's rights/rep
✅ $122mn empowering workers
4⃣ Technology
USG will:
✅ Strengthen @FO_Coalition
✅ Provide $4mn on prize competitions for democracy tech
✅ Launch an export controls and human rights initiative
@USAID will:
✅ Dedicate $20mn to digital ecosystems
@StateDept will:
✅ Provide $4mn for anti-censorship tech
5⃣ Electoral Integrity
@USAID will:
✅ Provide $3mn to launch a Coalition for Securing Electoral Integrity to develop and promote norms, principles, and codes of conduct
✅ Provide $18mn to establish a Defending Democratic Elections Fund to pilot, scale, and apply good responses
6⃣ Cross-cutting
@USAID will provide $55mn to a new flexible global fund to surge assistance to reform-minded partner governments as countries experience democratic transitions.
The amount of energy and creativity that the @WhiteHouse, @USAID, and @StateDept have poured into this is breathtaking. It probably includes lots of ideas that career staff had over the past four years but couldn’t get support. Call it Biden’s 29 Points to Save Democracy. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
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This piece is an embarrassment to @ForeignPolicy, which should issue a retraction.
It's by a MidEast columnist who cherrypicked quotes and facts to weave her own narrative that'll now be used by the Kremlin's useful idiots to undermine support for Ukraine.foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/29/ukr…
What’s the basis for claiming in the opening sentence that corruption has undermined Ukraine’s fight against Russia?
It’s certainly not supported by the first former official quoted in the piece, who says just the opposite—that reforms aren’t the issue stopping Ukraine from joining NATO.
This reform brings Ukraine in compliance with the @FATFNews standard of making banks closely scrutinize the finances of politically exposed persons or PEPs (i.e., former public officials who could benefit from corruption) for the rest of their lives, rather than just three years.
As background, see this article in @EuropeanPravda.
PEP reform was "the last main obstacle to the [EU] negotiations" and Zelensky's government was having a hard time getting its proposal through the parliament due to opposition among lawmakers who don't want to be lifelong PEPs.
Even as Ukrainian generals and soldiers fight to expel Russian invaders, a second army of state bureaucrats and civil society experts in Kyiv has been quietly mobilizing to win the peace.
Two new reports from @gmfus, @brdo_ukraine, @IAAUkraine, & @RISE_Ukraine_ map these actors.
As we've spoken to officials planning for a Marshall Plan for Ukraine, we've realized they often don't have a clear picture of all the new government bodies and civil society coalitions that have sprout up in Kyiv to prepare for reconstruction.
That's why we did this research.
Our first report, led by @brdo_ukraine, focuses on Ukrainian government institutions. ⬇️gmfus.org/news/kyivs-mob…
Wow! I had heard that this was in the works, but the details are strikingly strong. 💪
Good of the @WhiteHouse for sending the G7 donor coordination platform this list of 25 reforms that Ukraine must implement in order to continue receiving US assistance. news.yahoo.com/white-house-le…
Two of my favorite aspects of this list are how the priorities are sequenced over the next 18 months and how they've prioritized reforms to give the specialized anti-corruption agencies more resources and authorities, with specific line items for SAPO, NABU, NACP, HACC, and ARMA.
If you think that's an alphabet soup of esoteric bureaucracy, Putin disagrees. In his vitriolic speech three days before fully invading, he named these Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions and bemoaned their leadership selection processes and US support. en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…
NEW REPORT: Ukraine is halfway through a hero’s journey with a dual conflict against Russia and oligarchy.
Ukrainian anti-corruption is vital to the rules-based order. @NormEisen, Cameron Bertron, and I offer 25 ways stakeholders in that order can help. 🧵gmfus.org/news/ukraines-…
We start by setting the record straight on Ukrainian anti-corruption.
Here's what the Kremlin and its useful idiots leave out from their narrative about corruption in Ukraine:
Never in history has a nation built such a sweeping array of anti-corruption institutions in a decade.
This success drove Putin to invade. See what he did on the date of Feb 21 – a year apart, in 2021 & 2022.
2/21/2021: Started mobilizing “large-scale exercises” hours after Medvedchuk’s assets seized
2/21/2022: Named Ukraine’s rule-of-law institutions in his vitriolic war speech
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.