Dictators are a cowardly and superstitious lot. | Head of Combating Kleptocracy Program at Human Rights Foundation | Author of AMERICAN KLEPTOCRACY and FOREIGN AGENTS | Posts in personal capacity
Casey Michel
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Russia's inability to sway the Armenian elections is an incredible indictment of Moscow's flagging influence. It's one thing for everyone to see you unable to beat back Ukraine, but now Armenia keeps sticking Russia in the eye? Incredible.
Russia very much still on track to suffer more casualties in Ukraine than the US has lost in all of its wars combined.
www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/w...
Casey Michel
Kushner Companies bought 666 Fifth Avenue in 2007 for the elevated price of $1.8B, borrowing all but $50M. It was a remarkable risk. Indeed, the Kushners were still scrambling to cover their loans a decade later.
“Is Jared Kushner the World’s Worst Real-Estate Investor?” asked Vanity Fair.
4/ Jared's corruption is so vast a breathaking we also made a timeline of it. Even if you think you've wrapped your head around it, you'll come away shocked: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Don't look now, but Russia's influence in its supposed "near abroad" has collapsed—largely thanks to Moscow's ongoing, historic disaster in Ukraine.
My latest at @wsj.com, on how Russia's pretensions at being the leading regional power have gone up in smoke:
www.wsj.com/opinion/russ...
What a strange line from @economist.com here—not only is it completely unclear that Ukraine will cede territory(?), but who in the world knows if that's an "inevitable outcome" of the war?
This feels like a line written in early 2022, not 2026.
www.economist.com/europe/2026/...
"As democratic norms erode and elections become increasingly tilted, anti-corruption movements offer what partisan politics cannot: the moral authority to unite society against a rigged system." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/o...
China's "campaign of oppression against Uyghurs and their culture and identity has in fact entered a new phase. While many camps have shut, a vast network of prisons and detention centres remains, alongside pervasive surveillance and systems of coercive social control" www.ft.com/content/119d...
Casey Michel
And cutting deals with sketchy characters along the way
