A little over two years ago, a man armed with an AK-47 assault rifle waited outside Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad’s home in Brooklyn, New York, eager to kidnap and permanently silence her at the behest of Iran’s leadership.

“The Islamic Republic is that close to me, even here in Brooklyn,” said Alinejad. Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted the men responsible for Alinejad’s attempted assassination.

The brazen attempt to murder Alinejad is part of a broader trend of transnational repression, where authoritarian regimes reach across their national borders to silence, harass, and even kill dissidents in other countries. In theory, those dissidents enjoy the freedom offered by open societies like the United States to speak their minds and criticize repressive regimes. But in practice, that freedom is limited because of transnational repression.

While transnational repression is now a consistent and effective part of the authoritarian playbook, the long arm of authoritarian influence goes beyond regimes silencing their fiercest critics. And democracies have yet to fully grapple with the scope of the threat.

Dictators are expanding their reach into democratic countries not just to target political dissidents, but also to infiltrate companies to steal foreign secrets and co-opt the institutions of free societies to degrade the very norms of openness they were built to protect.

The United States is on the frontlines of this fight…

“As the conflict drags on, it is increasingly unlikely that Sinwar will make it out alive, whether he is killed by Israeli forces or taken out by one of his compatriots.” So wrote Evan Gottesman in this newsletter two weeks ago about the inability of Hamas to surrender. Last week, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza. To those who understand how authoritarian regimes operate from Tehran to Russia to Gaza, Sinwar's fate was entirely unsurprising. “There are few other off-ramps for a defeated leader who cannot be replaced at the ballot box,” observed Gottesman. “The only alternative for the wartime dictator is to keep fighting, consequences be damned.”

2. Moldova joins the European Union, narrowly

Nearly three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the former Soviet republic of Moldova is now on an irreversible path to join the EU. Just over half (50.46 percent) of Moldovans voted “Yes” to reject membership in Russia’s authoritarian sphere of influence, compared to the 49.54 percent who voted “No.” These were very slim margins, so it came as no surprise when Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov used the opportunity to decry the election as unfree and unfair. The irony of that statement may be lost on many Muscovites, but not on Moldovans.

3. How many North Korean soldiers in Ukraine will defect?

If you haven’t heard already, life in North Korea isn’t exactly ideal. Its citizens live in constant fear under a regime so repressive that it has even refused to teach the concept of fear to its population. So when news broke that North Korean troops had landed on Ukraine’s frontlines to die in a war Russia started, Ukraine decided to take advantage of this fact and offer them an off-ramp. They extended their “I Want to Live” program, which encourages defections, by translating it into Korean.

4. The wartime president

“Americans on November 5 will be electing a wartime president. This isn’t a prediction. It’s reality,” writes Frederick Kempe for The Atlantic. He raises a crucial and all but neglected point: None of the presidential candidates have adequately dealt with the increased collaboration between Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea in the most tense geopolitical moment since the Cold War. We are already engaged in a global war. The only question is whether we recognize the situation for what it is and what that means for America.

5. How exactly do sanctions work?

Sanctions are often in the news, but few understand how they actually work. A new interactive article from The Washington Post fills that gap. The report walks through the complete process of how the US government seizes the yachts of Russian oligarchs, starting from when the president determines that there is a threat to the US economy all the way to the coordination with American allies to capture key assets.

Foreign Influence and the Crisis of Local Journalism

A recent indictment reveals the unhealthy relationship between our democracy’s information ecosystem and its civic health.

By Christopher Schaefer — October 17, 2024

At RDI, we don't just talk about democracy. We act.

Since 2022, RDI has provided over $13 million in direct aid to brave Ukrainians facing authoritarian Russian aggression, working with local partners to maximize our impact.

Countless Ukrainians are struggling with food security as a result of Russia’s ongoing war against its democratic neighbor.

Earlier this month on the outskirts of Kyiv, RDI distributed bags of food to over 200 Ukrainians.