Newsletter Apr 2, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom #68 Georgian officials froze the bank accounts of five nonprofit organizations that provide financial and legal support to detained protesters.
Newsletter Mar 27, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #67 Turkey’s currency plunged to a record low after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rivals.
Newsletter Mar 20, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #66 In Thailand, the government announced a third digital cash handout to “stimulate the economy and drive technological adoption.”
Blog Post Mar 17, 2025 Broad Daylight How common is the corruption of public officials in the U.S.? Ben Freeman on what America’s “authoritarian friends” from the Persian Gulf are doing in Washington, D.C.
Newsletter Mar 13, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #65 In Iran, lawmakers impeached the economy minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati, following the Iranian rial’s rapid collapse, with the currency plunging to 1 million per dollar.
Blog Post Mar 11, 2025 The Playbook: How Syria’s brutal Assad regime used football to maintain power Welcome to The Playbook, an explainer series from HRF’s Sports & Dictators program that explores the intersection of sports and politics in authoritarian regimes and decodes the disturbing narratives behind the games we love.
Newsletter Mar 6, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #64 In Nicaragua, the regime is increasingly cracking down on civil society, imposing new financial regulations on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that require them to disclose donors and report all financial transactions — further restricting their ability to operate independently.
Newsletter Feb 27, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #63 In Nigeria, financial officials are revising digital asset regulations to impose taxes on digital asset transactions on regulated exchanges.
Blog Post Feb 20, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #62 This week, we honor the loss of the late Alexei Navalny, whose bravery inspired millions of Russians to stand up against Vladimir Putin’s financial, political, and social repression.
Newsletter Feb 13, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #61 This week, we highlight how authoritarian regimes are manipulating digital assets. The Central African Republic launched a government-backed meme coin that crashed spectacularly within a day of launch as regime insiders cashed out for profits, leaving the public with worthless tokens.
Blog Post Feb 10, 2025 The Playbook: How Saudi Arabia Uses Tennis to Present a Facade of Women’s Reforms When Saudi Arabia hosted one of the most important events in professional women’s tennis, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, in November, it wasn’t, of course, without controversy. The New York Times put it this way:
Newsletter Feb 6, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #60 In India, the central bank has taken a significant step toward launching its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee. In partnership with fintech firms Mobikwik and Cred, the digital rupee is now available to 180 million users through a new “e₹ wallet,” a CBDC wallet app designed for public use.
Newsletter Jan 30, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #59 This week, authoritarian regimes augmented their control and monitoring of online spaces in an attempt to suppress the dissenting voices of those they have financially repressed.
Newsletter Jan 23, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #58 In Iran, officials are accused of exploiting a recent currency devaluation to profit at the public’s expense.
Newsletter Jan 16, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #57 In Burma, the military junta introduced a far-reaching cybersecurity law that criminalizes privacy tools like VPNs and mandates online platforms to store and share user data with state officials.
Newsletter Jan 11, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #56 Welcome to 2025! As the year begins, authoritarian regimes have swiftly escalated financial repression, intensifying efforts to dismantle civil society, undermine due process, and suppress dissent.
Newsletter Dec 26, 2024 Financial Freedom Report #55 In Russia, the State Duma passed sweeping amendments granting officials the ability to equate “funding extremist activities” with “financing terrorism.”
Blog Post Dec 19, 2024 Authoritarian incumbents claim most of 2024 elections across Africa More than 15 national elections took place across the African continent (including North Africa) in 2024.
Newsletter Dec 19, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #54 After 53 years of tyranny, the Syrian regime has been overthrown.
Blog Post Dec 19, 2024 Legitimizing Aggression in Russia’s 2024 Vote Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia entered a period of profound political and economic change.
