Sergei Magnitsky was murdered in 2009.
He died of heart failure and toxic shock, induced by brutal beatings, in a Russian prison. The Russian government opened and quickly dropped a sham investigation into his death.
Magnitsky was a lawyer working for Hermitage Capital Management (HCM), a London based firm founded by human rights activist Bill Browder. In the course of his work, Magnitsky had uncovered a web of theft by Russian police and state officials of totaling approximately $230M. Upon reporting this to the authorities, he was subsequently arrested and tortured.Not having realized the true scope of the corruption he uncovered, it seems he may have reported the theft to participants in the scheme, who subsequently arrested and tortured him to death.
HCM already had a history of run-ins with Russian state corruption. In fact, what began as one of the largest private equity and venture capital firms working in Russia had, under the direction of Browder,become a sort of institutional anti-corruption crusader, and a thorn in the side of most of the Russian government. Magnitsky and Browder together had since 2005 been working to expose various pieces of wide ranging corruption which they termed “a trans-national organized criminal group involving Russian Mafiya and Russian government officials” (UK Telegraph, 2009)
Does that description sound like anything we’rehearing about recently?
Following the state sanctioned murder of his lawyer and friend, Browder became a fanatical crusader against Russian state corruption and human rights abuses.
The Magnitsky Act, passed in 2012, became Browder’s personal cause and crowning achievement. He describes the law resulting from his quest for justice as the tool that “allows the US to freeze assets and ban visas of human rights violators around the world” (Browder, TIME). This law has infuriated Putin since its passage and he has made its reversal a non-stop policy request in all diplomatic forums. However, rather than succeeding in his goal, Putin has had to watch impotently as the Magnitsky Act has not only remained in place, but been adopted by six additional countries including the UK and Canada, with eight others, including France and Germany, currently considering similar laws.
Remind me which countries we’re currently classifying as national security threats, waging trade wars against, and undermining in world alliances again?
The Magnitsky Act and related legislation anger Putin so personally and so deeply because much of the hundreds of millions in graft exposed by Browder/HCM has been subsequently tied to Putin personally. And the Magnitsky Act, crusaded for by Browder’s personal and steadfast effort thereby threatens the personal offshore fortune of a gangster backed by the entire Russian state military and intelligence capabilities.
Putin has spent years in his quest to get his hands personally on Bill Browder. He has issued multiple Interpol arrest warrants,charged Browder with so many ridiculous and manufactured crimes that it’s almost impossible to find a comprehensive list. Allegations include everything from Browder being a serial killer to being a CIA agent sent to undermine the Russian government. Browder surrendered his American citizenship in response and is now a UK national.
Notice who has been poisoning a lot of people on British soil? Is it possible those killings are also threats to Mr. Browder?Reminders that Putin can ultimately get to anyone?
Donald Trump this week said (and today walked back)that it sounds like an “incredible offer” to turn over Bill Browder and Michael McFaul (our former ambassador to Russia who Putin has tied into his latest conspiracy theories for an Obama/HRC angle) to Putin in exchange for allowing our officials to observe a sham interrogation of the 12 GRU officers indicted for attacking our country. A hypothetical interrogation to be conducted by Russians on Russian soil.
It seems very reasonable at this moment to be asking ourselves what reason an American president would possibly have for even entertaining what he KNOWS would result in the immediate torture and murder of these two men in exchange for what he KNOWS would be a farcical and staged show.
What reason does a sitting US president have to even CONSIDER this idea?
Why would a president representing and acting on behalf of Americans not instead be demanding the immediate extradition of these 12 GRU members for trial in the US? Of course he wouldn’t get that, but why isn’t the master of the “art of the deal” starting high in this negotiation?
Or is he?
If we consider that Trump is not negotiating with Putin on our behalf, but rather negotiating with American public opinion on behalf of Putin’s quest for vengeance, maybe floating the idea of surrendering these men IS starting high. Maybe the next “idea” Trump will float to the American people is a rung down the negotiating ladder to overturning the Magnitsky Act? Putin mentioned Browder by name in Helsinki. He usually refers to his enemies as “this man” or similar. That is significant.
Remember that the now infamous Trump Tower meeting during the campaign in which Trump Jr, Manafort, and Kushner met with Russian lawyers and spies was allegedly “just about adoptions”. And one aspect of the fallout related to the Magnitsky Act is that Russia banned US adoptions in 2012.
What if that Trump Tower meeting was BOTH? What if it really WAS about adoptions, but also about conspiring with Russia for campaign assistance, because part of what Russia asked for in exchange for their help was to overturn the Magnitsky Act, in response to which they would reverse the adoption prohibition? Putin gets his money back, Trump gets all of the money he will make grifting off of the presidency, win-win? It’s about adoptions.
What if a bunch of KGB/GRU spies, Putin included, know that the best lies have their genesis in truth?