The Dekleptocracy Project
The Dekleptocracy Project is a research program of Anti-Corruption Action, a Virginia 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We find the foreign suppliers Russia's war economy cannot replace. Then we put that evidence in front of the governments that write sanctions, the prosecutors who enforce them and the journalists who cover them.
Russia runs on Western technology. It cannot make the catalysts that refine its oil, the additives that keep its engines running or the chips that guide its drones. It buys them, through intermediaries, from companies in countries that oppose the war.
Each of those purchases is a chokepoint. Sanctions evasion looks, on paper, like money laundering, and money laundering is something anti-corruption researchers know how to find. We apply those methods to Russia's supply chain and name what we find.
Research. Our first study, Vulnerabilities in the Russian Chemical Industry by Andrew Fink (February 2026), traces the catalysts, additives and feedstocks Russia cannot produce and names the firms that supply them.
Field notes. Short essays on the blog on what we are seeing in Russia's supply chains, from rocket fuel binders to shadow-fleet shipyards.
Tools for the public. A free flag tool that puts the Ukrainian flag on your profile picture without uploading your photo anywhere.
Our research helped shut down Arctic LNG 2, Vladimir Putin's liquefied natural gas plant in the Russian Arctic. It has informed the European Union and the U.S. government on multiple sanctions packages.
Newsweek's May 2026 investigation into Reliance Industries' refinery-catalyst exports to Russia drew on data we shared and on our translation of Russia's priority chemicals list. Monthly Chosun quoted us in October 2026 on a Korean builder's turbine-oil shipment to Russia. The press section lists the coverage.
The project is run by the staff and research analysts of Anti-Corruption Action, a nonprofit that researches the bankers, lawyers, lobbyists and companies that enable corruption. Its other programs are the Quid Pro Quo (QPQ) Tracker, a public database on money in U.S. politics, and a major investigation into corruption in the United States.
Read more at anticorruptionaction.org, or write to us through its contact page.
Donations. Every dollar funds the analysts, attorneys and investigators who do this research. Gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law, and a receipt arrives from DonorBox.