TraCCC Representation at Major Events
Organized Crime
Corruption
Financial Crimes
Trafficking in Persons
Illicit Trade
Human Rights
Environmental Crime
Conferences
Talks and Papers
Citations and Publications Ongoing features

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Seminars, Worshops and Forums
Organized Crime
• TraCCC/ABA CEELI joint event on "Crime and Corruption Related to Migration in Russian Megalopolises: Comparative Analysis of Moscow and St. Petersburg Patterns" (September 30, 2005, in Moscow). TraCCC presentations were made by Elena Tiuriukanova, Louise Shelley, and Liudmila Erokhina. The following files are available:
o Event Program (Russian, English)
o The list of participants (Russian)
o Elena Tiuriukanova's presentation, Migration and Crime and final report (both in Russian).
• Ukrainian and Russian Perspectives on Organized Crime (November 12, 1998, at American University)
• Crime and Globalization Conference (April 6, 1998, at American University)
• Organized Crime in the Far East (November 4-6, 1997 at the Procuracy Training Institute, Irkutsk, Russia)
Corruption
•Promoting the Rule of Law and an Effective Romanian Business Environment (April 14, 2003, CSIS, Washington, DC)
Financial Crimes
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty hosted a briefing by Raymond W. Baker (Senior Fellow, Center for International Policy, and Guest Scholar, Brookings Institution) and Ethan S. Burger (TraCCC Scholar-in-Residence, and Adjunct Faculty, Georgetown University Law Center) entitled The Thin Green Line: Money Laundering and How Legitimate Business Helps The Ruling Elites in the former Soviet Union on Thursday, June 29, 2006. The speakers discussed the mechanics of money laundering in the countries of the former Soviet Union, the reasons for the ineffectiveness of government programs to combat it, and the consequences for business and governmental conduct.
• June 1998: International Cooperation in the Combat Against Laundering Illegally Obtained Profits (Moscow, Russia)
• December 1998: Problems of Fighting Crime in the Sphere of Economic Activity, Kharkiv, Ukraine. (PDF documents in English and Ukrainian: Part I, Part II, Part III)
• October 2004: Dr. Louise Shelley and TraCCC Researchers Aleksandre Kukhianidze (Georgia) and Nabi Abdullaev (Russia) at the research workshop "Invisible Threats: Financial and Information Technology Crimes against National Security" in Dubrovnik, Croatia (Workshop program).
• April 8-9, 2005: Louise Shelley presented a paper at a conference at the Kennan Institute, Wilson Center, Washington, DC. The conference was on "Commercial Law Reform in Russia and Eurasia."
Human Rights
• Organized Crime: Impact on Human Rights. February 18, 1999 at American University, Washington, DC.
Environmental Crime
• "Environmental Impacts of Transnational Crime and Corruption." Speakers included Alan Green, Author of Animal Underworld, an expose of American's legal/illegal trade in exotic animals, Dr. James Lee, Director of the Mandela Projects and the Trade and Environment Database, and Craig Van Note, Executive Vice President at MONITOR, a coalition of 25 conservation, environmental and animal welfare groups. April 25, 2001.
Trafficking in Persons (TIP)
• October 28, 2006: Louise Shelley and Saltanat Sulaimanova Liebert presented at the trafficking and organized crime panel at the SSTOP conference, Georgetown University.
• October 25, 2006: Louise Shelley presented "From Liberal Arts to the Study of International Crime", Cornell University.
• From July 30-August 6, 2006, TraCCC's Kristin Kowalew attended the 2006 International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) in San Jose, Costa Rica, where she gave a presentation on "Human Trafficking and Globalization," and facilitated a workshop on "Anti-Trafficking Education."
• October 28, 2005: Louise Shelley gave a talk at the Asian-American Forum, on "Human Trafficking in Asia: A Comparative Perspective" (view flyer).
• April 13, 2005: TraCCC's John Picarelli participated in a discussion sponsored by Project Hope International and OneWorld on combatting human trafficking entitled, "Anti-Trafficking Perspectives of an Academic, a NGO Activist, and a Research Scholar." Other participants included Sarah Ahmed, MA Candidate in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at AU, Christina Arnold, Founder and Executive Director of Project Hope International, and Dr. Vidyamali Samarasinghe, Professor in the School of International Service at AU.
• With grant money from the U.S. Government, TraCCC developed and held the first trafficking training curriculum leading to a seven day course, February 14-21, 2001 at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA), Budapest, Hungary. The Program was entitled "The Criminal Recruitment, Movement and Exploitation of Persons and Law Enforcement Responses" The participants included Moldavian, Russian and Ukrainian law enforcement officials.
• "The Exploitation and Export of Women from Russia: Scale and Scope." Panel Discussion with experts from the Russian Federation, hosted in cooperation with the USIA International Visitor Program and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Washington, DC. (March 1999).
• "Trafficking in Women and Children." Conference with Experts from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal at American University in Washington, DC. (September 1998).
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Conferences
2007
• TraCCC staff and researchers made a series of presentations at the 2nd Istanbul Conference on Democracy and Global Security, held from June 14-16, 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey. A panel entitled "Smuggling and its Networks" was offered on June 15, and included the following presentations:
Louise Shelley (panel chair): "Smuggling of Nuclear Materials;"
Ahmet Yayla: "WMD Prevention Efforts of Turkish National Police;"
Alon Daniel: "Prison as a Network for Nuclear Smuggling: The Nexus Point between Crime and Terrorism;"
Bilal Wahab: "Smuggling in Oil and Antiques Fuel the Conflict in Iraq;" and
Alexandre Kukhianidze: "Unresolved Conflicts and Nuclear Smuggling through Georgia."
Other TraCCC presentations included:
Mahmut Cengiz: "Turkish Mafia Type Criminal Groups' Sociological Aspect: The Results of Qualitative Research;"
Sharon Melzer (panel chair): "Cigarette Smuggling and Counterfeiting: Terrorists and Organized Crime Exploiting a Legal Commodity;" and
Carmen Apaza: "Does Accountability Reduce Corruption in a Corrupt Political Environment?"
Dr. Louise Shelley also offered closing remarks on the conference theme, "International Perspective on Crime."
• TraCCC PhD student Carmen Apaza was selected to present a paper at the third World Bank PhD Conference on May 16th 2007 in Bled, Slovenia. Her essay, The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI): Criticisms, Responses, an Ongoing Scholarly Discussion, was selected for presentation and will be published by Routledge in a coming collected volume.

2008
• On March 27, TraCCC hosted a lecture entitled, "Human Trafficking in Central Asia: The Case of Kyrgystan." Here are the Kyrgystan delegation's presentations on the Produga NGO, the Osh Committee on Migration and Employment, The Roles of NGO's in Human Trafficking in the Kyrgyz Republic, and the International Organization for Migration in Kyrgyzstan.

2007
• On March 12, TraCCC's Robert Orttung spoke at the Kennan Centre in an event hosted by Freedom House and Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The event focuses on Freedom House’s annual survey of reform in the former communist countries of Europe and Eurasia, and panelists examined current political trends in Russia and Central Asia.
2006
• On 5 October 2006, Lyudmila Erokhina of TraCCC Vladivostok and Louise Shelley spoke about transnational crime with Lyudmila Alekseeva on her human-rights radio program, part of RFE/RL's Russian-language service. On 19 October, Alekseeva conducted a follow-up interview with Elena Tyuryukanova on illegal immigration in Russia.
• On September 27, 2006, Dr. Louise Shelley gave a presentation at the Russian Duma in Moscow on "Financing Terrorism: Legal and Illegal Methods" as part of the Third International Forum "The World Community Against the Globalization of Criminality and Terrorism."
• 22 February 2006: TraCCC's Bilal Wahab was interviewed by the Voice of America's Kurdish Service,about corruption and how to confront it. (The interview, conducted in Kurdish, is available in streaming audio).
• Monday, 2 January 2006 Dr. Louise Shelley was interviewed by the Washington Examiner on the future of US anti-terror tactics.
2005
• 12 December From noon to 1pm, at the Woodrow Wilson Center (Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, 6th floor auditorium), Dr. Louise Shelley and Dr. Robert Orttung will speak on the links between organized crime and terrorism in Eurasian nuclear smuggling. Further details, including a video recording of the event, can be found on the Wilson Center's website; a summary of the points made is also available.
" Russia is facing an increasing threat of terrorism, including evidence that terrorist groups are interested in obtaining nuclear material from Russian facilities. Shelley and Orttung will examine the security situation around some of Russia's key nuclear storage facilities and link threats to them back to networks in the Caucasus and other parts of the world. In particular, they will examine the connections between terrorist and organized crime groups."
• Wednesday May 4: Associate Research Professor and TraCCC scholar Robert Ortung participated in an expert discussion at Freedom House entitled "On the Eve of the Moscow Summits: The International Community Response to Russia at a Crossroads?" For additional Information, consult Freedom House's Nations in Transit 2005: Russia
• Tuesday, March 29: Grigorii Pasko gave a talk at 4pm in the School of International Service (SIS) building, room 205, American University, main campus. He spoke on the intersection of state secrets and journalism in Russia. This event was co-sponsored by the SIS and TraCCC.
• Thursday, March 24: TraCCC's Ambassador-in-Residence, Todd Stewart, participated in a panel entitled, "Parliamentary elections in Moldova: Assessing the results and their implications for regional security and democratization," at the National Democratic Institute.
• Tuesday, March 8: The TraCCC Georgia Office conference on “Transnational Crime and Corruption in Georgia” took place, in which TraCCC Grantees presented their research results on corruption in vital sectors of the Georgian economy and political sphere, and made recommendations on how to combat it.
• Wednesday, February 9: Robert Orttung gave a talk at Southern Urals State University in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
• Friday, February 5: Robert Orttung presented a paper at the PONARS conference on February 5 about the Role of Business in Russian Foreign and Security Relations.
• Thursday, January 27th: Dr. Louise Shelley presented a lecture entitled "Transnational Crime and Corruption and the Threat to Democracy Building," at Dartmouth College, sponsored by the War and Peace Program at the Dickey Center for International Understanding.
2004
• Wednesday, December 15: PhD Candidate Christopher Corpora gave a lecture entitled "Engineers Needed: Framing the Gaps Between International and Local Perspectives on rganized Crime in Bosnia-Herzegovina," at the Smithsonian's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
• Friday, November 12: Bea Simon Zakhari presented her published research from Human Traffic and Transnational Crime at the Tenley Forum, American University. Her talk was entitled "Legal Cases Prosecuted Under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000."
• Tuesday, November 2: Dr. Shelley gave lecture at a conference on Organized Crime and Corruption at Britain's prestigious Chatham House, which also is the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London; the title of the lecture will be "Organized Crime and Corruption?:Differing Approaches in Russia and Georgia"
• Wednesday, October 27: Dr. Louise Shelley was a speaker on the opening panel of the 2nd Geneva Forum on Organized Crime. The topic of her presentation was "Defining the Notion of Criminal Structure."
• October 14 - 17: Saltanat Sulaimanova, one of Dr. Shelley's advanced students, gave a presentation at the 2004 Central Eurasian Studies Society 5th Annual Conference.
• Saturday, September 25: Dr. Louise Shelley made the keynote address to the September 25th IREX conference on "Policy and Practice: Celebrating Ten Years of Contemporary Issues Fellowship Program"
• Sunday, September 26: Dr. Shelley gave a speech in Tbilisi organized by IREX.
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TraCCC citations and publications
2006
• Former TraCCC scholar Elena Tiuriukanova was quoted in an article on Russia in The Economist (Thursday, 16 February). Subscribers to that publication can view the article here.
• A new TraCCC project, headed up by Dr. Robert Orttung and entitled, 'A Variety of Anti-Terrorist Strategies: Comparing the Experiences of the U.S., Great Britain and Russia,' was referenced in NATO's latest 'Security through Science Program' report.
2005
• Elena Tiuriukanova's report on Social, Economic, and Criminal Effects of Migration in Russian Megalopolises is now available on the TraCCC Publication Database.
• TraCCC's Bilal Wahib published an article on democracy in Kurdistan. It can be viewed on the National Review website; his remarks on the event, as well as links to media recordings of the event, can be found on his blog, Better Kurdistan and Iraq.
• TraCCC's Elena Tiuriukanova was quoted in an article by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty entitled "Russia: Putin Asks Parliament To Ease Citizenship Rules." The article, by by Claire Bigg, can be viewed here.
• Several publications by TraCCC Staff have been added to the Publications Database (http://www.american.edu/traccc/resources/publications.html. Of particular significance for TraCCC is the publication of John Picarelli, Louise Shelley, Allison Irby and Nabi Abdullaev's Methods and Motives: Exploring Links Between Transnational Organized Crime and International Terrorism, in the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) July 2005 report.
• Dr. Robert Orttung has written a review (note: this review is in Russian) of Rasma Karklin's The System Made Me Do It: Corruption in Post-Communist Societies (available on Amazon.com).
• he latest report from TraCCC's Nizhnii Novogorod project, entitled Financial & Industrial Groups in Russia's Regions: Issues of Transparency and Accountability and edited by Andrey Makarychev, is now available on the TraCCC publication database.
• The latest Russian Regional Report, featuring essays on the drug trade in Chelyabinsk, municipal elections in Tatarstan, Putin's appointment of Ilyumzhinov to another term in Kalmykia, problems in the Russian prison system, and Moscow's troubled relationship with the North Caucasus region, is now available on the TraCCC publication database."
• Dr. Natalia Lopashenko, Saratov Center Director, was quoted in these recent regional Russian publications in July: (available in Russian only) We Live in a Society of Risk with No Guaranteed Future Law Against Terrorism: Can Criminal and Legal Measures Alone Defeat Terrorism? Corruption is Ubiquitous, but alas, the Fight Against Corruption Inconsistent Download a single file containing these articles (.pdf)
• El financiamiento del Terrorismo, by Louise Shelley, was published in the No. 4 Newsletter (April 2005) of the Revista de Opinion Juridica.
• "Unravelling the New Criminal Nexus," an article by Dr. Louise Shelley, was published in the Winter/Spring 2005 Edition of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.
• Thursday, March 3: Newsday published an op-ed written by TraCCC's Robert Orttung along with Christopher Walker about corruption in the Russian police: Steps Toward Democracy ( in Russian )
• Monday, January 31: Larisa Miculet, past visiting TraCCC scholar, was featured on television and the media in connection with the publication of her book on fighting economic crime and corruption from a comparative perspective. This book was written during her Fulbright period at TraCCC. View the cover of Reglementarea juridica a raspunderii pentru infractiunile economice si coruptie in SUA si Republica Moldova: studiu comparat, or browse the foreword by Louise Shelley.
2004
• Sunday, December 5: Dr. Louise Shelley and Robert Orttung were quoted by The Washington Times.
• Monday, November 1: Just published: Human Traffic and Transnational Crime: Eurasian and American Perspectives edited by D. Sally Stoecker and Dr. Louise Shelley. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. The book has eight chapters representing TraCCC-sponsored research in Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
• Nabi Abdullaev had two articles published in October's issues of Current Affairs ( 'Chechnya Ten Years Later' ) and the Homeland Defense Journal ('Terror in Beslan' - the cover story).
• Monday, October 11: Dr. Shelley was on NPR's Marketplace program, discussing the impact of drugs on the Afghan elections.
• Monday, September 13: Robert Orttung was quoted by Financial Times on current changes in Russia.
• Tuesday, September 14: Robert Orttung was quoted by Scripps Howard News Service on current changes in Russia.
• Wednesday, September 15: Robert Orttung on Russia's war on terror on the Kojo Nnamdi Show.
• Thursday, September 16: Natalia Lopashenko was quoted by The Moscow Times on Gateway to Russia on capital flight from Russia.
• Friday, September 17: Louise Shelley wrote a review of Victor Malarek's The Natashas for The Moscow Times.
• Wednesday, September 29: Robert Orttung and colleague had an article published in the International Herald Tribune entitled, Elections cannot uproot entrenched corruption.
• Friday, March 4: The U.S. Department of State cited TraCCC research in their 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report Volume II: Money Laundering and Financial Crimes (See "Georgia")
2003
• November 30, 2003: "Georgia's 'Revolution of Roses' Can be Transplanted." An opinion piece by TraCCC Scholars Louise I. Shelley and Erik R. Scott appeared in The Washington Post, describing the popular uprising that led to the ouster of President Edward Shevardnadze in terms of an anti-corruption revolution that has sweeping implications for the entire region.
• November 30, 2003: "Smugglers Enticed by Dirty Bomb Components." Aleko Kupatadze, a Junior Researcher with TraCCC's Tbilisi, Georgia Office, was quoted in The Washington Post on smuggling in radiological materials. The article described the worldwide market in radiological materials, which could be used to assemble a "dirty bomb."
• November 15, 2003: "Georgia Overwhelmed by Its Own Failures." Ketevan Rostiashvili, Director of TraCCC's Tbilisi, Georgia Office was quoted in a recent article in The Washington Post on the corruption rampant in Georgian society.
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Ongoing features
• Development Gateway Special Presentation on TraCCC's Georgia Program
A recent presentation by the Development Gateway highlights the achievements of TraCCC's Georgia Program. The presentation describes the full range of TraCCC's Georgia Office and Money Laundering Project, featuring an in-depth interview with project staff in Tbilisi and Washington, DC.