Bill Browder discusses Putin, Ukraine, the function of Magnitsky Acts, and the nature of corruption.

This interview was recorded in September 2023, at HowTheLightGetsIn London. Book tickets to this year's festival here: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festiva...

Was a regime like Putin's the inevitable outcome of Russia's hard transition to capitalism in the 1990s?

Watch Bill debate the rise of BRICS at https://iai.tv/video/redrawingthegl...

With war ravaging Ukraine and Russia exerting its power across the world, the whims of Putin are more valuable to understand than ever. Bill Browder has survived as Putin's numberone enemy ever since the murder of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. While dodging Interpol arrest warrants, extradition attempts, and windows in high buildings, Browder has become a worldleading expert on the internal workings of Russia, and activism to hold autocrats to justice.

#russia #putin #ukrainewar

Bill Browder is an Americanborn British financier and political activist. He is the CEO and cofounder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment advisor to the Hermitage Fund, which at a time was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia.

00:00 Introduction
00:36 Was an autocrat like Putin the inevitable outcome of Russia’s hard transition to capitalism in the 1990s?
03:19 Did Putin embrace the oligarchs out of choice or necessity?
04:47 How would you characterise the economy of Russia today?
05:52 How do Magnitsky Acts work?
08:47 How does sanctioning oligarchs affect Putin’s regime?
11:08 What have sanctions achieved since the war in Ukraine?
12:29 Can the West alone effectively sanction Russian oil?
14:19 How do you see the future of BRICS?
16:16 Could BRICS’ New Development Bank become a major force?
17:06 Why did we allow Russian money to take such a hold of London?
18:49 Can this be reversed through legislation?
20:01 How do you see the future of Russia after Putin?
21:19 Will we manage to toughen up on Russia, or will we slowly lose our resolve?
23:22 If Trump becomes president again, will he cosy up to Putin?


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