

1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20004
Special Prosecutor, Spain's Attorney General's Office
Former Executive Director, Kleptocracy Initiative
Charles Davidson is Executive Director of the Kleptocracy Initiative at Hudson Institute.
Former Research Fellow
Ben Judah is a British journalist and the author of This Is London and Fragile Empire.
Senior Reporter, ProPublica
The 2018 U.S. National Security Strategy warns that transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) “weaken our allies and partners [by] corrupting and undermining democratic institutions” and that “some state adversaries use TCOs as instruments of national power.”
No authoritarian regime has exported corruption and criminality with greater impact than Vladimir Putin’s “mafia state.” TCOs linked to senior Russian political and business figures have reportedly engaged in money laundering, theft, bribery, and a multitude of other crimes across Europe.
In February, prosecutors in Madrid opened a major trial against alleged members of the Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya gang, accusing them of money laundering and the “creation of a criminal community in Spain.” Based on more than a decade of investigations, the trial provides unprecedented insights into the Kremlin’s export of corruption through Russian TCOs.
On May 25, Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative welcomed Spain’s Judge José Grinda Gonzalez, and U.S. experts for a discussion about investigating and prosecuting Russian organized crime, defending democracy and the rule of law, and pushing back against the Kremlin’s kleptocratic encroachment.
Hudson Senior Fellow Riley Walters will discuss these questions and more with former US Trade Representative Ambassador Susan Schwab.
The revelation that Russia has recruited hundreds of Cuban citizens to fight in Ukraine underscores the desperation of Cuban citizens and the expansion of cooperation between Cuba and Russia.
Join Hudson Institute and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Euro-Atlantic Resilience Centre (E-ARC) for a workshop on how the US and its allies should address the promises and perils of emerging technologies.