415. Casey Michel - Is Putin Retooling His Regime to Support 'Eternal Warfare' & Confrontation with West‪?‬ Silicon Curtain

“A toxic flood of dark money has given billionaires and special
interests a powerful way to rig the system secretly in their favour…”
These are the words of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, ahead of a debate in
the US Congress around the Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act. But
this phrase could equally be applied to the UK, where Russian Oligarchs
and dark money interests have been able to cleanse their ill-gotten
gains for decades through the London financial laundromat. Londongrad is
the phrase coined to describe the high presence of Russians in the
United Kingdom, especially in reference to Russian money in London,
permeating its service sector and securing political influence.
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Casey Michel is head of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human
Rights Foundation, focusing on how dictators and autocrats use illicit
finance and dirty money to remain in power. He’s the author of AMERICAN
KLEPTOCRACY, on America's transformation into an offshore haven. His new
book, FOREIGN AGENTS, will examine the explosion of the foreign
lobbying industry in Washington, and how that industry has helped
entrench dictatorships and upend American foreign policy. FOREIGN AGENTS
will be published in 2024.
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LINKS:
http://www.caseymichel.com/
https://x.com/cjcmichel
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseymichel/
https://www.rusi.org/people/michel
https://www.hudson.org/experts/1381-casey-michel
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BOOKS:
https://read.macmillan.com/lp/american-kleptocracy/
American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World's Greatest Money
Laundering Scheme in History (2021)
Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy
Around the World (2024)
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ARTICLES:
https://foreignpolicy.com/author/casey-michel/
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/casey-michel/

FOREIGN POLICY
How Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Became Putin’s Spiritual Guru
April 7, 2024

Russia’s Opposition Needs More Than One Savior
March 1, 2024

Russia’s Crimean Red Line Has Been Erased
October 4, 2023

How to Stop Former Western Leaders From Becoming Paid Shills for
Autocrats
February 15, 2022

Kazakhstan’s Border With Russia Is Suddenly an Open Question Again
January 6, 2022

How Delaware Became the World’s Biggest Offshore Haven
November 19, 2021

The Fatal Flaw in the West’s Fight Against Autocracy
October 6, 2021

America’s Money Lost the Afghan War
September 13, 2021

Biden Might Stop a Sanctions Revolution
August 24, 2021

Oligarchs’ Favorite U.S. Visa Might Not Last
July 16, 2021

THE ATLANTIC
We’ve Never Seen Anything Like the Menendez Indictment - The case
against the New Jersey senator has the potential to reshape how America
deals with foreign agents.
Casey Michel - October 26, 2023

Make Russia Pay - The West has already frozen some $300 billion in
Russian assets. Here’s the case for seizing them.
Casey Michel - May 28, 2023

Decolonize Russia - To avoid more senseless bloodshed, the Kremlin must
lose what empire it still retains.
Casey Michel - May 27, 2022

How the West Undermines Its Own Sanctions - The Western sanctions in
response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been far broader than many
experts anticipated. But there’s a catch.
Casey Michel - March 9, 2022

The United States of Dirty Money - How landlocked South Dakota became
one of the world’s hottest destinations for offshore funds.
Casey Michel - October 5, 2021
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