

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.
Please join Hudson Senior Fellow and Director of the Keystone Defense Initiative Rebeccah Heinrichs for a conversation with Senators Risch and Wicker on US support for Ukraine’s defense on Wednesday, March 29, at 4:00 p.m. A reception will follow.
Please join Hudson Institute for a discussion with Israel's Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Ofir Akunis and Executive Director of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute Robert Greenway, moderated by Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East Director Michael Doran.
Please join Hudson Institute to discuss what has gone wrong with US policy toward Venezuela and how the Biden administration and 118th Congress can reinvigorate efforts to support democracy so that all Venezuelans can have a brighter future.
Join Hudson Institute for a conversation on these issues and more with Ambassador Adela Raz, former ambassador of Afghanistan to the US and visiting fellow at Hudson Institute, and Ambassador Husain Haqqani, former ambassador of Pakistan to the US and director of Hudson Institute’s South and Central Asia program.