Kremlin Playbook

Through its flagship reports The Kremlin Playbook and The Kremlin Playbook 2: The Enablers, the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia program has exposed how the Kremlin has sought to erode Europe’s democratic institutions through its influence in order to “break the internal coherence of the enemy system.” This has been most visible in Central and Eastern Europe, as detailed in the first Kremlin Playbook, through an "unvirtuous cycle" of influence whereby the Kremlin attempts to influence a country’s decision through both economic and political channels. However, Western Europe is not immune: The Kremlin Playbook 2 demonstrated how Russia’s malign economic influence uses—and depends on—our advanced financial and economic systems to hide profits and launder ill-gotten gains, as well as to reroute funds that can be used to influence different political and economic across Europe. This web of influence makes some countries and economies dependent on Russian ties, and in turn creates points of leverage for the Kremlin. In the end, the risk is high for our democratic systems and ability to fight corruption, malign influence, and kleptocracy.

A related effort focuses on specific examples of Russian malign influence throughout Europe; to read more, visit our Kremlin Playbook Spotlight page.