Follow the Money: Understanding the Threat Covert Foreign Financing Poses to Democracies

• Ellen Weintraub, Commissioner on the U.S. Federal Election Commission
• Teija Tiilikainen, Director of the Hybrid Center of Excellence
• Josh Rudolph, Malign Finance Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy
• Janne Jokinen, Senior Analyst at the Hybrid Center of Excellence

Please join the Alliance for Securing Democracy and the European Centre of Excellence on Hybrid Threats in Helsinki for a virtual, interactive discussion on the threat malign financial activity poses to democracies across the transatlantic space. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with the panelists on these topics in a question-and-answer portion of the virtual event.

Authoritarian powers like China and Russia are covertly financing political actors to undermine democracies. Authoritarians use malign financial activity as a geopolitical tool to exploit the openness of Western institutions and economies. Democracies must act—both domestically and in concert with allies—to strengthen their institutions and improve transparency to shine a light on authoritarian efforts and mitigate this growing threat.

Panelists will discuss the vulnerabilities that authoritarian actors exploit and the steps that democracies should take to both prevent and respond to this behavior. The event will highlight the importance of transatlantic cooperation in countering financial threats and offer a deep dive into how each side of the Atlantic is actively attempting to address covert foreign money.

See ASD’s latest report on covert foreign money here.