How to Use kleptocracy in a Sentence

kleptocracy

noun
  • Putin's kleptocracy has but one viable business, oil and gas.
    — Star Tribune, 16 Jan. 2021
  • This can be traced back to the end of Robert Mugabe’s kleptocracy.
    — The Economist, 15 Aug. 2019
  • But kleptocracy experts and lawmakers say more needs to be done to rein in Putin.
    — Josh Meyer, USA TODAY, 25 Feb. 2022
  • The analogy with wholesale state kleptocracy was too sharp, and the film was banned for ever.
    — The Economist, 21 Apr. 2018
  • At his urging, Russians gathered in the street from coast to coast to protest the kleptocracy.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 7 Apr. 2021
  • The world of kleptocracy is protected by its own complexity as well.
    — Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 8 Dec. 2021
  • Mrs Warren has since focused heavily on her loathing for sleaze and kleptocracy on the campaign trail.
    — The Economist, 27 Sep. 2019
  • But Mueller’s filings stand on their own as an important rebuke to global kleptocracy.
    — Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 31 Oct. 2017
  • In the past 30 years, corruption has become entrenched, kleptocracy the norm.
    — Rebecca Hamilton, Washington Post, 5 Feb. 2020
  • Trump was elected in part by people who had been ripped off by the international kleptocracy in places like Warren.
    — Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 8 Dec. 2021
  • The dictionary defines a kleptocracy as a government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed.
    — Letter Writers, Twin Cities, 7 May 2017
  • The government of Vladimir Putin is a murderous kleptocracy, a danger to its own people and to all people.
    — Mario Loyola, National Review, 17 Feb. 2022
  • Slowly, Castro’s cronies built a kleptocracy that proved ruinous to the Cuban people, but hugely profitable to them.
    — Quico Toro, The Atlantic, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Every time someone leaves a kleptocracy for a more law-abiding state, humanity is slightly better governed.
    — The Economist, 14 Nov. 2019
  • The sanctions are designed to punish the kleptocracy behind the two-month war by cutting off access to wealth, property and luxury hiding places.
    — Chelsey Cox, USA TODAY, 28 Apr. 2022
  • For 47 years, a theocracy has turned into an autocracy and kleptocracy.
    — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 1 Mar. 2026
  • The network that kleptocrats rely on to move and stash illicit cash contributes to the cycle of kleptocracy, further eroding democracy and the rule of law.
    — Alexandra Wrage, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2021
  • The fact that America has been a bastion of anonymous shells is a blight on Washington’s claims to be fighting kleptocracy and grand corruption abroad.
    — Casey Michel, The New Republic, 18 Sep. 2019
  • There’s also been great reporting about the Russian kleptocracy, [or corrupt government].
    — Karin Wulf, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Mar. 2022
  • Those skills have taken on greater weight with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the Biden administration’s focus on corruption and kleptocracy.
    — Dylan Tokar, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2022
  • Yes, many nations such as Uruguay and Chile are strengthening institutions even as ones like Venezuela descend into kleptocracy.
    — Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 15 Sep. 2024
  • Richard Evans, a historian of the Nazi kleptocracy, points out that the party’s ideological grip on millions of minds was its real power.
    — WSJ, 11 Mar. 2022
  • By then a tidal wave of Russian money had been sucked out of the country by the kleptocracy that had looted Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
    — Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 2 Mar. 2017
  • Newman understands how kleptocracy and oligarchic excess — both in Russia and in the West — repel and attract us in 2022.
    — Michael Taylor, San Antonio Express-News, 27 Apr. 2022
  • Perhaps, though, Britain's primary aim is to protect itself from the corrupting influence of Russian kleptocracy.
    — chicagotribune.com, 28 Mar. 2018
  • Now, López Obrador is taking the country down a familiar path, not to a strong, healthy democracy but to a lawless, corrupt kleptocracy, supported by people who should know better.
    — Denise Dresser, Foreign Affairs, 21 Oct. 2022
  • Post-independence, Congo veered into kleptocracy under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko.
    — Nicolas Niarchos, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2019
  • The free flow of money has enabled kleptocracy and corrupt influence; the growth of trade has not made dictatorships more like democracies but allowed dictatorships to have leverage over democracies.
    — Peter Pomerantsev, Time, 21 Dec. 2022
  • Crucially, some corporations that until the start of the invasion were willing to sacrifice principles to operate in a lawless kleptocracy have made their break with Putin.
    — Alexandra Wrage, Forbes, 5 May 2022
  • In the post, which cost Shor’s party less than $100 to upload, the oligarch accuses Sandu’s government of corruption and kleptocracy.
    — David Klepper, Fortune, 17 Feb. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kleptocracy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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