Putin tried to kidnap me... because I’ve hit him where it hurts most
...and the UK must follow US and do the same, says BILL BROWDER
Britain needs to wean itself off dirty Russian money
ON WEDNESDAY morning, shortly after waking up in Madrid, I found the manager of my hotel and two Spanish police officers at my door. As I stood there with my tie half tied, one of the officers asked for my identification documents and said in broken English: ‘You’re under arrest.’
When I demanded to know why, he said: ‘Interpol, Russia.’
I knew then that Vladimir Putin and his cronies had found me. What followed was an ordeal which, although it ended safely, could have worked out very differently – with a flight to Moscow and from there an armoured van to a Russian prison where, I am in no doubt at all, I would have been killed.
Mine is not the only Russian story to have created headlines in recent weeks, of course.
We have learned that the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich, has halted plans for a £1 billion redevelopment of the club’s Stamford Bridge stadium after his British visa was delayed.
Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko told the world that he had staged his own murder in a bid to thwart an assassination plot in Ukraine.
And former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia have finally been discharged from hospital after an outrageous murder attempt.
Yet I hope you will forgive me for explaining my own drama in a little more detail – because all these things are connected.
It was my good fortune that, as the hotel manager argued with the police, I had time to reach for my phone and tweet: ‘Urgent: Just was arrested by Spanish police in Madrid on a Russian Interpol arrest warrant.’ It might well have saved my life.
Then, from the hard plastic seats in the back of a small police car, I tweeted again.
Shortly after, one of the officers heard my phone ring and promptly confiscated both that and my wallet.
With lights flashing and sirens blaring, we were soon careering through the back streets of Old Madrid and it was at this moment I had my first real panic: What if they weren’t really Spanish police officers?
I had good reason to be paranoid. I am a wanted man in Russia because of my personal campaign against Putin’s corrupt and violent regime.
In 2015 I received an official communication from the American government that there was a rendition plot being issued against me by the Russians – a plan to drag me to Moscow against my will.
Back in Madrid, the car stopped in front of a nondescript office building and one of the officers said: ‘Doctor’s office. You have medical exam.’
Still uncertain as to whether they were legitimate police officers, I refused to co-operate and demanded to speak to my lawyer. Realising that I wouldn’t go ahead without a struggle, they made some calls and a few minutes later we were heading to a police station.
The entire place seemed to be in a state of excitement and a translator explained that officers were calling Interpol headquarters. About an hour later, the mood changed to one of deflation: Interpol had ruled that the Russian warrant wasn’t valid because it was politically motivated and illegitimate. I was free.
Why, then, would the Russians be so interested in having me detained? A former financier, I was once the biggest foreign investor in Russia. Now, I am one of the most vocal critics of the Putin regime.
I had been running an investment fund in Russia and asked my lawyer Sergei Magnitsky to investigate a £150 million tax fraud from which Putin’s associates had benefited.
MAGNITSKY, who bravely revealed the names of the guilty parties, was arrested, tortured and ultimately beaten to death by Putin’s agents in a Russian prison i n 2009, merely for speaking the truth.
In 2013 I was put on trial in absentia for the trumped- up charge of tax evasion. Absurdly, Sergei Magnitsky also faced charges at t hat t ri al even though he was dead.
My work now focuses on instigating t he Magnitsky Act, named in his honour. It halts Russian corruption by freezing the assets and banning visas of Putin’s cronies who commit human rights abuses and grand corruption. Last month we had a major breakthrough when Britain became the seventh country to adopt the measures.
Indeed, the reason for my trip to Madrid was to meet Jose Grinda, one of Spain’s most respected anti-Mafia prosecutors, to discuss new evidence relating to Magnitsky’s murder and connected money laundering in Spain.
I know the timing of my arrest, coming shortly after the new British powers were introduced, was no accident.
After all, this was the Russians’ sixth attempt to arrest me. The last time was in October, when the Canadian parliament unanimously passed its own Magnitsky Act.
Putin abhors the Act because it imposes an immediate and crippling financial hit. It freezes assets and bans visas of those in his regime.
By creating this piece of legislation I put their money at risk. It means they can no longer buy legitimate status in Europe by purchasing a town house in London’s Belgravia or sending their children to the best public schools.
That’s why Putin wants me arrested, but I’m not naive enough to think that would ever be enough. As I have said, Sergei Magnitsky was tortured and beaten to death. No doubt they would do the same to me.
For years it has been a lonely fight, but with the recent poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the British Government has finally woken up to the evils of a regime which will carry out more awful acts on British soil unless we take a very tough stand.
In April, the US government i mposed sanctions against seven high-profile oligarchs in Putin’s inner circle. By hitting them, you hit Vladimir Putin.
Britain has not yet gone far enough – and its failure leaves all of us at risk. We should match what America has done, if not go further.
There is a good reason the Russians have not been bold enough to poison their enemies on US soil – they fear repercussions.
Yes, there will be the inevitable fall- out such as Roman Abramovich’s decision to halt his Chelsea investment.
THAT may be the price to pay for our national security. We don’t need t o rely on Russian money to sustain our economy and certainly not if Putin is going to use it to hold us to ransom.
For far too long, Britain was addicted to dirty Russian money. Now it needs to wean itself off.
What my arrest really means is that the Magnitsky Act is working. And now Britain needs to be bold, to replicate the US’s sanctions against oligarchs, which are the most stinging rebuke to Russia since Vladimir Putin came to power.
The brazen attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal and his daughter with chemical weapons in a peaceful British city shows that if we don’t act now more attacks will follow.
Next time I also might not be so lucky.