Bill Browder and Jamison Firestone: Chaos and Murder in Putin's Russia
About this episode
Bill Browder and Jamison Firestone discuss their unexpected journey into activism against the Russian government following the assassination of their lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.
Neither Bill Browder, a hedge fund manager, nor Jamison Firestone, a corporate lawyer ever intended to become activists fighting the Russian government. Both were building businesses in Moscow, great believers in Russia, and had front-row seats as Russia’s nascent disorderly democracy gave way to Putin’s initially stable but ultimately corrupt dictatorship. Bill’s Hermitage Capital was the largest foreign portfolio investor in post-Soviet Russia; Jamison was the founder of the country’s first independent foreign law firm. In the Yeltsin years when Bill launched his investment fund, Jamison found himself defending himself and his clients from mafia attacks, dealing with corrupt police officers, and much more. When Putin came to power, the bandits disappeared, but over time the State became the new Mafia and eventually destroyed rule of law. The turning point for both men was when their offices were raided by the police and the registration documents for Hermitage confiscated, Bill and Jamison found themselves at the centre of the biggest tax theft in Russian history: and their lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was assassinated for uncovering the truth. In an attempt to get justice for…
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