Bill Browder explained that a Red Notice is a communication issue by Interpol requesting the
arrest of a wanted person with an intent towards extradition, and on November
13, 2005, a red notice was issued against Browder to bring him back to Russia
to stand trial for trumped up charges of tax evasion, no doubt at the
insistence of Vladimir Putin. Browder was the largest private investor in
Russia until that time, having taken his hedge fund from $25 million to $4.5 billion.
Initially, his style of investing which included attacking the oligarchs was
helpful to Putin, but once Putin and the oligarchs made peace with each other
(probably when they agreed to give about half of their wealth to Putin in
exchange for their lives), then Browder’s aggressive litigious efforts were no
longer desired by Putin. Furthermore, Putin wanted to steal all of Browder’s
assets, but Browder was a fighter, even when he knew others who put up a
struggle ended up in prison and/or dead.
As he learned more and more about the ubiquitous corruption
during the privatization of Russian businesses in the post-Soviet era, Browder
wrote, “This whole exercise was teaching me that Russian business culture is
closer to that of a prison yard than anything else. In prison, all you have is
your reputation. Your position is hard-earned and it is not relinquished
easily. When someone is crossing the yard coming for you, you cannot stand idly
by. You have to kill him before he kills you. If you don’t, and if you manage
to survive the attack, you’ll be deemed weak and before you know it, you will
have lost your respect and become someone’s bitch. This is the calculus that
every oligarch and every Russian politician goes through every day.”
This is a remarkable nonfiction work of Browder’s life,
success, eventual flight from Russia with most of his funds intact, and Putin’s
continued effort to bring him to Russian justice. Do you remember when Putin
stopped American parents from adopting Russian babies in 2012? That came out of
Browder’s successful efforts to get the U.S. government to deal with the
corrupt business practices that were going on in Russia. Browder wrote
regarding the adoption ban, “This meant that in addition to punishing American
families who were waiting for Russian children to join them, Putin was also
punishing, and potentially killing, defenseless orphans in his own country. To
say that this was a heartless proposal doesn’t even qualify as an
understatement. It was evil, pure and simple.”
This was also a book about the murder of Browder’s attorney
in Moscow, Sergei Magnitsky, and Browder’s attempts to bring to justice those
people who were responsible. The 2009 murder which took place in a Russian
prison was clearly orchestrated because of Magnitsky’s successes on behalf of
Browder in the Russian court system. The day Obama signed the Magnitsky Act,
which brought sanctions against those who could be tied to his murder, was the
same day the Russian Parliament passed the law that banned the adoptions.
If you’ve been following my book reviews, you’ll remember
that a couple years ago I read nothing but Russian literature for 6 months in
preparation for a trip to Russia. This book, published early in 2015, would serve as a good follow up to The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of
Vladimir Putin. Browder helps one understand the corrupt system that has
developed around Putin and the difficulty that anyone would have dealing with
this very devious power-hungry man.
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