The recent record-high gas prices have triggered legitimate concerns regarding the EU’s energy security, especially with dependence on natural gas from Russia. This brief discusses the historical and current risks associated with Russian gas imports. SITE researchers Chloé Le Coq and Elena Paltseva argue that decreasing the reliance on Russian gas may not be feasible in the short-to-mid-run, especially with the EU’s goals of green transition and the electrification of the economy. To ensure the security of natural gas supply from Russia, the EU has to adopt the (long-proclaimed) coordinated energy policy strategy.

The prestigious CEPR symposium of the Development Economics Programme will be hosted by the Stockholm School of Economics on 19 and 20 May 2022. The conference is organised by Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum), Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). The call for papers for conference presentations is open until 28 February 2022.

The need for urgent climate action and energy transformation away from fossil fuels is widely acknowledged. Yet, current country plans for emission reductions do not reach the requirements to contain global warming under 2°C. What is worse, there is even reasonable doubt about the commitment to said plans given recent history and existing future investment plans into fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure development. This policy brief shortly summarizes the presentations and discussions at the SITE Development Day Conference, held on December 8, 2021, focusing on climate change policies and the challenge of a green energy transition in Eastern Europe.

COVID-19 has brought economic shocks of unprecedented scale and impact. The global value chain is not an exception. What policies and investments are needed to improve global value chains post pandemic? On December 20, 2021, Erik Berglöf, Chief Economist at Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, presented key findings from the Asian Infrastructure Finance 2021 report: Sustaining Global Value Chains.

Policy brief: Some recently discovered money laundering schemes have funnelled large amounts of illegal money from former soviet states through European banks. This note briefly describes the evolution of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime for financial institutions, the introduction of which was concurrent with the post-soviet transition and the connected illegal flows of funds. It discusses the effectiveness of the current AML regime – and its ability to detect and seize illegal funds. The brief also highlights some of its deficiencies as well as lack of compliance with its prescriptions. It proceeds to stress that after judging the current framework insufficient, the US recently introduced whistleblower rewards for AML-infringements. Europe might want to follow their lead if it really aims at limiting money laundering.

On December 15th, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) will be organising an online book launch event of a new eBook co-edited by SITE researcher Giancarlo Spagnolo titled “Procurement in Focus: Rules, Discretion, and Emergencies”.

This year’s SITE Development Day conference will focus on environmental policy in Eastern Europe, with a particular emphasis on global warming, energy transformation, and energy security.

Policy brief: The recently declassified proceedings of the Swedish Academy shed new light on why it awarded Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn the literature prize in 1970. His novels reflected unique experiences of many prisoners. The Academy characterized his work as a renewal of the great Russian literary tradition. However...

How does the fight against money laundering work? Are the regulations effective enough to detect and counter-strike money laundering? And what role can the whistleblower play in the fight against money laundering? Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) researchers Giancarlo Spagnolo and Theo Nyreröd discussed money laundering and whistleblowers at SNS.

On Friday, October 15, 2021, in connection with the Ministerial meetings of the Swedish-Russian Steering Committee, the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), the Russian Trade representation and Östkontoret hosted a high-level event on Circular Economy and Innovation. The discussion was introduced by Swedish Minister Anna Hallberg and Russian Minister Denis Manturov who then engaged in a panel discussion with distinguished representatives from leading Swedish and Russian companies.