Bill Browder: the Kremlin threatened to kill me
The former banker claims Vladimir Putin runs Russia like a
crime syndicate. He should know: corrupt officials seized his assets and stole
$230m. His lawyer was beaten to death in jail. And now sinister text messages
warn he might be next
Putin’s ruling system unviable, Browder thinks. “It’s based
on 90% bribery and 10% repression. He has now run out of money for bribery, so
he has to flip it over to 90% repression. I don’t think he [Putin] has got the
infrastructure to be a proper repressive dictator.”.. Interestingly, Browder
says he opposes western sanctions on ordinary Russians, regarding them as an
imprecise tool that punishes the wrong people. Rather, he would like to see the
top 1,000 Russian government officials banned from Europe and the US . Of London , he says: “Every
Russian wants to come here. It’s their bolthole, their escape valve.”
**********
I’m due to meet Bill Browder at Mari Vanna, a favourite
hangout for rich Russians in Knightsbridge. But when we get there the
restaurant, with its rustic dacha-style Russian decor, leaves us
both feeling slightly spooked. So we wander across the road to an anonymous
sushi bar. Browder’s reluctance to avoid bumping into anyone with Kremlin
connections is understandable. As he explains, matter-of-factly: “They [the
Kremlin] threatened to kill me. It’s pretty straightforward.”
American-born Browder is one of Vladimir Putin’s most
prominent critics. For over a decade he lived in Moscow
and ran the most successful investment fund in Russia. Initially, he was a
fan of Putin’s. But in 2005 he was deported from the country. A corrupt group
of officials expropriated his fund, Hermitage Capital, and used it to make a
fraudulent tax claim. They stole $230m (£153m).
Stuck in London ,
Browder hired a team to fight his case. The same Russian officials arrested his
lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, after Magnitsky uncovered the money trail and made a
complaint. They put Magnitsky in jail and refused him medical treatment.
(Magnitsky suffered from pancreatitis and gall stones.) After he had spent
almost a year behind bars, guards beat him to death. He was 37 and married with
two small boys.
The incident had a transforming effect on Browder. “If
Magnitsky had not been my lawyer he would still be alive,” he says. He
describes Magnitsky’s death as “absolutely heartbreaking”. “If he hadn’t taken
on my case he’d still be enjoying his life, being a father, looking after his
wife. A young man whom I was responsible for died in the most horrific way
because he worked for me.”
Browder’s memoir, published next week, recounts how
Magnitsky’s death changed him from entrepreneur to global human rights
crusader. Its title is Red Notice: How I Became Putin’s No.1 Enemy; and it
reads like a non-fiction version of a Mario Puzo thriller. There’s a ruthless
crime syndicate, a mafia boss – for Michael Corleone read Putin – and a growing
tally of bodies.
Ever since Magnitsky’s murder in 2009 Browder has waged an
extraordinary campaign to bring the officials to justice. Not in a court of law
– there’s no prospect of a trial inside Russia – but in the wider court of
international public opinion...
******
This may seem a little fantastical, but the Kremlin has a
track record of silencing those it dislikes. Our Japanese lunch venue is a
short stroll away from Mayfair and the
Millennium hotel. It was there in 2006 a KGB squad allegedly poisoned the
former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko. A public inquiry into
Litivineko’s radioactive murder opens this week. Given the threats against him, I wonder why Browder is
dining without bodyguards? “Bodyguards offer fake security. The real security
comes from having your enemies know nothing about you,” he replies.
According to Browder, the west is embroiled in a new cold
war with Russia .
The most visible manifestation of this is the worsening conflict in Ukraine. But unlike in
communist times, he says, the west isn’t dealing with a hostile ideology. His
thesis – which I share – is that Putin and his law enforcement and spy agencies
are in effect running Russia
as a “criminal enterprise” for their own financial gain. Anyone who stands up
to them – such as Magnitsky – faces being shot, arrested or penalised.
For those who don’t know Russia , this might sound a bit
gloomy. Is it also Russophobic, the charge made by pro-Kremlin online
commentators against anybody who dares to criticise Putin? Browder says his
problem isn’t with Russia
as such but with the powerful clique of ex-KGB spies who have grabbed the
state. “I think Russia
is an occupied country. There are 140 million good people and a million bad people,”
he says. He points out that he is married to a Russian, Elena, (they met and
fell in love in Moscow )
and they have two children together. His “longest serving and most trusted”
colleagues are Russian, he says, and adds: “Among the 140 million are some of
the most loyal, generous and intelligent people you can find in the world.”
Browder’s own backstory is fascinating. His grandfather was
the head of the American communist party in the US . As a teenager, outshone by his
prodigy brother, Browder decided he would rebel by becoming a capitalist. He
found himself initially drawn to London ,
where he worked briefly for Robert Maxwell, and later became a British citizen.
He says he feels little loyalty to the US , which persecuted his leftwing
family. (Senator McCarthy dragged his grandfather before the House Committee on
Un-American Activities.) Browder harboured a “romantic notion” the UK was
synonymous with the rule of law and freedom.
After Magnitsky’s death, Browder says the policy of western
governments disillusioned him. The Obama administration was deeply relectant to
impose sanctions on corrupt Russian officials for fear of annoying Putin – a
stance Browder calls “appeasement”. The Foreign Office treated Browder
politely. But Downing Street stubbornly refused to enact its own version of the
Magnitsky Law, despite strong cross-party support and worsening relations
following Putin’s Crimea putsch.
The bad guys in Browder’s book are vividly painted. One of
them is a senior interior ministry official called Major Pavel Karpov. Karpov
sued Browder for libel in the high court and lost – the judge ruled that he had
no standing in Britain .
Karpov has since failed to pay £250,000 in costs. Browder says he’s dismayed at
the way corrupt Russians can abuse the British legal system.
Much of Red Notice reads like a detective novel, with
Browder and his lawyers trying to figure out what happened to the stolen cash.
Gradually, they put together the clues. They discovered that Karpov was part of
a wider group of dodgy bureaucrats. It included another interior ministry
official, Lt Col Artem Kutznetsov. And the head of a Moscow tax office, Olga Stepanova... Read
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