News – Middle East: The American New Republic magazine awarded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the title of “kleptocrat” in 2022 as the leader of thieves, thanks to his globally tarnished reputation.

The magazine highlighted that the leaders of the kleptocratic regime,they secretly enrich themselves outside the rule of law, through bribes, directing state funds to themselves. This applies to Mohammed bin Salman, as the wealth of the royal family in Saudi Arabia is estimated at trillions of dollars, and the crown prince has the last word in controlling this family.

A kleptocracy or government of thieves is a government whose corrupt leaders use political power to seize the state's wealth, by embezzling or stealing money at the expense of the people's needs. In an op-ed by writer Casey Michel, the magazine said that in early 2021, just a few weeks into President Joe Biden's first term as president, his administration released a surprise report on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

It indicated that the man ultimately responsible for Khashoggi's killing was none other than Mohammed bin Salman, who supported "the use of violent measures to silence opponents abroad," including kidnappings and killings.

The magazine continued, that after nearly two years have passed, it is clear that efforts to isolate Mohammed bin Salman have effectively failed, as Washington's relations with Riyadh have returned in a dismal shape, which put Mohammed bin Salman in a stronger position than it was from the beginning.

 “With Russian President Vladimir Putin bogged down in Ukraine, Xi Jinping's China facing more domestic turmoil than it has seen in years, it's safe to say that no kleptocratic dictator has had a better year than this self-proclaimed pariah”, the magazine added.

The magazine pointed out that Biden threatened to unleash ambiguous “consequences” on the Saudis after the OPEC Plus stunt, but after two months, it is still not clear what those “consequences” are, if any.

Much of that can be attributed to the other geopolitical waters the White House must navigate, not least from Moscow and Beijing.

The magazine said that Saudi Arabia, under the rule of Ibn Salman, has become a major category in “laundering reputation” and in using Western services to transform its identity from that of a kleptocratic dictatorship to a system ready to be welcomed into a polite society.

The magazine noted that many other unsavory countries are engaged in efforts to whiten their reputation, but even among the wider world of dictatorships, Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi regime stand apart.

The magazine referred to the relations between Saudi Arabia and former US President Donald Trump, explaining his role in washing the kingdom's reputation through the "Live Golf" tour. It explained that, in addition to the new golf links, financial relations between Trump and Mohammed bin Salman reached new levels earlier this year, when journalists discovered that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had succeeded in obtaining billions of dollars in Saudi financing for his new for private equity.

The magazine argued that while American private equity firms have long been pariahs to kleptocratic wealth, thanks in large part to a decades-long exemption from basic anti-money laundering controls ,the deal between Kushner and the Saudis is creating new depths of kleptocracy.