Bill Browder's Testimony Paints Dark Picture of Russian Corruption

First full disclosure: I have written of and discussed the Russia Gate obsession as a useful distraction from other important policy considerations, importantly, restoring transparency and fairness in elections.  Heightened irrational fear of  Russians perverting foreign policy makes the word a more dangerous place.

This article paints a dark and disturbing picture of greed and corruption that is important to understand.  Putin is indeed very corrupt and Russian life if full of injustice such as portrayed.  This may actually explain why unethical  rich people like the Trumps like working with them.  Lots of money with no accountability, ethics or rules.  But it has nothing to do with our elections.  Those we fuck up for ourselves because our government has been captured by money and corporate power and is undemocratic to the core.

The Russians did not steal our election. De-escalation of tensions with Russia is good.  Nuclear and conventional arms reductions including NATO are imperative.

This does not mean I support the Magnisky Act as I have not studied it.


Read the Full Text of Bill Browder's Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee - The Atlantic:


This is from Rebecca Solnit on facebook 7/26/17

Mr Browder testifies: That all changed in July 2003, when Putin arrested Russia’s biggest oligarch and richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Putin grabbed Khodorkovsky off his private jet, took him back to Moscow, put him on trial, and allowed television cameras to film Khodorkovsky sitting in a cage right in the middle of the courtroom. That image was extremely powerful, because none of the other oligarchs wanted to be in the same position. After Khodorkovsky’s conviction, the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked him what they needed to do to avoid sitting in the same cage as Khodorkovsky. From what followed, it appeared that Putin’s answer was, “Fifty percent.” He wasn’t saying 50 percent for the Russian government or the presidential administration of Russia, but 50 percent for Vladimir Putin personally. From that moment on, Putin became the biggest oligarch in Russia and the richest man in the world, and my anti-corruption activities would no longer be tolerated....

Information from the Panama Papers also links some money from the crime that Sergei Magnitsky discovered and exposed to Sergei Roldugin. Based on the language of the Magnitsky Act, this would make Putin personally subject to Magnitsky sanctions.

This is particularly worrying for Putin, because he is one of the richest men in the world. I estimate that he has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains from these types of operations over his 17 years in power. He keeps his money in the West and all of his money in the West is potentially exposed to asset freezes and confiscation. Therefore, he has a significant and very personal interest in finding a way to get rid of the Magnitsky sanctions.

The second reason why Putin reacted so badly to the passage of the Magnitsky Act is that it destroys the promise of impunity he’s given to all of his corrupt officials.

There are approximately ten thousand officials in Russia working for Putin who are given instructions to kill, torture, kidnap, extort money from people, and seize their property. Before the Magnitsky Act, Putin could guarantee them impunity and this system of illegal wealth accumulation worked smoothly. However, after the passage of the Magnitsky Act, Putin’s guarantee disappeared. The Magnitsky Act created real consequences outside of Russia and this created a real problem for Putin and his system of kleptocracy.

[And then he goes on to draw the links between this extraordinary corruption and the lawyer the president's son and son-in-law met with.]