The New Russia: Just Shut Up, Drink Your Vodka, And Keep Your Head Down

Russia has now turned into a "criminal state", according to the man who was once its leading foreign investor. Bill Browder, head of investment firm Hermitage Capital was reacting to the news that his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, had died in prison in Russia after being held for a year without charge. Browder says that Russian officials withheld medical treatment from his lawyer in a failed attempt to extract a phony confession.

While generating headlines as the head of Hermitage Capital, Bill Browder had campaigned against corruption at some of Russia's largest companies. In 2005, Browder was inexplicably banned from Russia as a threat to national security-- after allegations that his firms evaded tax. It is unclear how tax evasion constitutes a threat to national security under Russian law. Browder believes that he was targetd for being a threat to corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Furthermore, Browder claims that his company was targeted by criminals in Russian law enforcement trying to seize millions of dollars worth of his assets. Browder says he was punished for being a threat to corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

Magnitsky was one of the lawyers hired by Browder to investigate whether fraud had been committed against his firms. Browder claims that when Russian police raided his office they took away corporate documents which they then used to steal his companies. "Sergei Magnitsky was one of the lawyers who discovered the whole crime, figured out who was responsible and then testified against the police officers and after he testified against the police officers the very same police officers had him arrested on spurious charges."

The circumstances surrounding Magnitsky's death has caused Bill Browder to question his attitude to Russia under Putin. "When Putin first showed up [he] said he was going to tame the oligarchs . . . I [didn't] realize that what he meant by taming the oligarchs was by sticking law enforcement people in their place," he says.

"Now you have a bunch of law enforcement people who are essentially organised criminals with unlimited power to ruin lives take property and do whatever they like and that's far worse than I have ever seen in Russia before. Russia is essentially a criminal state now."