RuPEP

Online database of politically exposed persons in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

URL

https://rupep.org/en/

Description

RuPEP can help you to dig into the network of people and organisations around a politically exposed person (PEP). A PEP is someone in a prominent public position, which makes them a higher risk for bribery and corruption (though this does not mean that they are actually involved in such activities). RuPEP is a database of PEPs that also includes:

• Family members and business partners of PEPs

• Others associated with them according to media reports

• People sanctioned by the EU, US and others, and their relatives and business partners

• Shareholders and managers of Russian military companies, and their relatives

• Heads of military-civilian administrations in Russian-occupied territories in the Ukraine

• Organisations associated with PEPs.

RuPEP also contains information on legal entities associated with PEPs and their relatives, and those associated with people on the EU, US and other sanctions lists. This includes legal entities that:

• Have employed PEPs or other persons

• Have PEPs or other persons as founders, co-owners, shareholders or beneficial owners

• Provide PEPs or others with company or other property management services or nominee services.

See the criteria for inclusion on this page.

An important note: PEPs are not necessarily involved in anything illegal - they have just been identified as being at greater risk of involvement in bribery and corruption. Being a PEP does not mean that they have been identified as having used their position for inappropriate gain.

RuPEP says the data is collated from public sources and includes databases of information leaks. They detail their criteria for sources on their About page.

PEP information

A PEP's page will start with biographical and sanctions information:

The top of a PEP's page

On the left, the sections of information on this page are listed. On the right are listed alternative spellings for the PEP's name. In the centre, the sanctions information is well curated: It includes a last checked date, and hyperlinks to sources:

Click on the 'i' icon to get more information about those sanctions

Lower on the page, each PEP has a network visualisation:

The network visualisation shows various entities (PEPs and organisations such as companies) and the relationships between them

On the diagram you can:

• Zoom in to see detail on the PEP's network (by using the scroll wheel on your mouse)

• Click on a round icon to see the details

• Hover over the arrows to see the nature of the relationship.

RuPEP might indicate that more information is available in the Russian version of the site, so rather use that one if you can (e.g. by getting your browser to translate the page):

Sections in the PEP's page might say that more is available in the Russian version

If you stick with the English version, keep an eye out for 'more information is available in ru version of the dossier' links (outlined in green above).

Legal entity information

You can also search RuPEP for legal entities (companies and organisations). Here are some of the results for a search on Gazprom:

Legal entity search results for a search for Gazprom

The legal entity page contains links to page sections on the left, and some basic entity information:

Legal entity's page

The legal entity network visualisation, like the one for PEPs, allows you to: Zoom in more more detail, click on the icons to see the details of the people or entities with which the legal entity has relationships, and view the nature of the relationship by hovering over the line:

Legal entity network visualisation

Cost

• Free

• Partially Free

• Paid

Level of difficulty

Requirements

You need to sign up for a free account to view the data. An e-mail address is required.

Limitations

There is a limit to viewing 20 profiles (person or organisation) per day. You can request a free daily increase if you are a journalist, civil society activist or representative of a non-profit organisation.

They do not permit use of their data for commercial purposes - see the terms and conditions.

The data is obviously limited to Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. If you want to look at PEPs in other countries, OpenSanctions could be a good source.

It appears that the home page search provides more comprehensive results than the search function in the top right of the page:

The home page search, circled in green, is preferable to the search at the top right of the site (marked in red)

Ethical Considerations

As mentioned above, a PEP is someone in a prominent public position, which makes them a higher risk for bribery and corruption - but it does not mean that they are actually involved in bribery or corruption. It is important for researchers to understand this to prevent any misinterpretation of the data provided by the database.

Guides and articles

-

Tool provider

RuPEP.org

Advertising Trackers

• This tool has not been checked for advertising trackers yet.

• This tool uses tracking cookies. Use with caution.

• This tool does not appear to use tracking cookies.

Page maintainer
Katherine de Tolly