Illicit finance and Russian foreign policy: new dynamics and linkages
Project Live
PROJECT TEAM
Professor David Lewis
University of Exeter
Contact: d.lewis@exeter.ac.uk
David Lewis is Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter and a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He teaches and conducts research on international peace and security, with a regional focus on Russia and Eurasia. His recent publications include Russia’s New Authoritarianism: Putin and the Politics of Order (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). Before joining the Politics Department at Exeter, he worked in the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University and for the International Crisis Group in Central Asia and in Sri Lanka. During 2019-22 he was on secondment as a Research Fellow at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. He was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List.
Dr Tena Prelec
University of Rijeka
Contact: tena.prelec@cas.uniri.hr
Dr Tena Prelec is a Lecturer at the Centre for Advanced Studies on South Eastern Europe (CAS SEE), University of Rijeka. She is formerly a Research Fellow at the Department of Politics & International Relations (DPIR) at the University of Oxford. She obtained her PhD from the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, Centre for the Study of Corruption (CSC), at the University of Sussex. Dr Prelec is also a member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG) and a Research Associate at LSEE-Research on South Eastern Europe, London School of Economics and Political Science. Her co-authored book, Professional Indulgences: British service providers, post-communist elites, and the enabling of kleptocracy, is forthcoming with OUP in 2024.
PROJECT SUMMARY
This project examines how Russia is using illicit financial flows (IFF) to support its military campaign against Ukraine and to further its wider foreign policy goals. The scale of Russian use of illicit financial networks has increased rapidly since February 2022. Unless effectively countered, Russia's use of financial and economic tools will give it an advantage in its war against Ukraine and may begin to pose a potential systemic threat to international financial and trading systems.
The research seeks to conceptualise how Russia uses illicit finance in political interference and information campaigns around the world, and how these dynamics may be changing in the new context of the war in Ukraine. The project has also begun work on the role of illicit finance in the war itself, including its role in Russia's military strategy and in the occupation of Ukrainian territory.
PUBLICATIONS
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The illicit financialisation of Russian foreign policy: mapping the practices that facilitate Russia’s illicit financial flows (SOC ACE Research Paper RP3)
New Dynamics in Illicit Finance and Russian Foreign Policy (SOC ACE Research Paper RP17)
Economic Crime and Illicit Finance in Russia’s Occupation Regime in Ukraine (SOC ACE Research Paper RP20)
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Mapping Russian illicit finance in Africa: the Cases of Sudan and Madagascar (SOC ACE Briefing Note BN7)
Russian illicit fiancial flows and political influence in South Eastern Europe: how financial flows and politics intersect in Montenegro and Serbia (SOC ACE Briefing Note BN8)
Russian illicit financial flows and influence on Western European politics (SOC ACE Briefing Note BN9)
ENGAGEMENT
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The State-Crime Nexus: Spotlight on Russia, RUSI’s Suspicious Transaction Report Podcast Series, Episode 4, Tena Prelec, 28 April 2023
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“Russia's Economic Occupation of Ukraine: New insights into Russia's strategies in the occupied territories” Professor David Lewis presents his research paper on the Russian Occupation in Ukraine, in a virtual event at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES), The Russia Program at George Washington University, 27 October 2023.
Paper presented on “Illicit Finance and Russian Foreign Policy since the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine” as part of a panel on “The Geopolitics of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine”, ASN Conference, Columbia NYC, 18 May 2023.
SOC ACE Workshop: "New dynamics in illicit economies and conflict after the Russian invasion of Ukraine”. at the Conflict Research Society (CRS) Annual Conference, working with colleagues from academia, policymaking, civil society and the private sector to identify new data and methodology gaps and opportunities, implications of latest research for strategy and policymaking and an emerging research agenda.