Bill Browder Quotes

Well, I mean, Russia was responsible for shooting down MH17. Russia was responsible for invading Ukraine. Russia is responsible for taking away the chemical weapons in Syria that they didn’t take away. Russia was responsible for having honest athletes in the Olympics when they did the whole doping program.

If I could do it all over again, I would have never gone to Russia.

George Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul in the first meeting he had in Slovenia. And then in the next meeting, he realized his soul was very dark.

Ever since Barack Obama had become president, the main policy of the U.S. government toward Russia had been one of appeasement.

I know many businesspeople in Russia who have knowingly signed up to effectively compromise their values for their own profit motive to become part of this criminal apparatus in Russia.

Putin is a totally inscrutable guy. He gives nothing away. People interpreted what they wanted to see in him.

For the last ten years, I’ve been trying to avoid getting killed by Putin’s regime, and there already exists a trail of dead bodies connected to its desire to see me dead.

Bodyguards offer fake security. The real security comes from having your enemies know nothing about you.

Russia is an interesting place because they’re extremely evil but they’re not that good at implementing their evil.

The Magnitsky law has proven to be a powerful tool. While asset freezes and travel bans against corrupt officials may sound incidental, they have shaken the Putin kleptocracy right down to the core.

I’m very realistic about who’s coming to my defense. I am my defense.

While most people in the world probably haven’t heard my name, Vladimir Putin thinks about my name on a very regular basis. He really dislikes me because I’m the guy responsible for the Magnitsky Act.

Our top targets are the people who tortured and killed Sergei Magnitsky. But our secondary targets are those people who profited from the crime that he was killed over or facilitated the money laundering for those people.

If there was one senator who could truly empathize with being tortured in prison, it was John McCain.

I’m not an American citizen.

Vladimir Putin has to create foreign enemies, and he also has to justify… he has to claim… he can’t acknowledge that there’s a legitimate protest against his authoritarian rule, so he’s got to blame it on Hilary Clinton.

If you want to go after Putin, go after his money and if you want to go after his money go after the oligarchs.

Russia has a well-known reputation for corruption; unfortunately, I discovered that it was far worse than many had thought. While working in Moscow I learned that Russian oligarchs stole from shareholders, which included the fund I advised.

I do have some very strong thoughts on Glenn Simpson, who is one of the founders of Fusion GPS, based on his conduct in trying to discredit me and Sergei Magnitsky.

I am definitely not under British protection. I have to protect myself. I am not M.I.6. I am not C.I.A. I am not anything.

Sergei Magnitsky was an incredibly intelligent, principled and idealistic man who was this sort of positive face of the new Russia. He was in jail, really, as my proxy, and so it was impossible for me to sleep. I felt guilty taking a shower because I knew he couldn’t.

I work with so many levels of British law enforcement, I never know who is working for whom.

Sergei Magnitsky was murdered as my proxy. If Sergei had not been my lawyer, he would still be alive today.

I much more enjoy the company of freedom fighters and justice campaigners than I do the company of hedge fund managers.

The Russian government doesn’t like me; Vladimir Putin doesn’t like me.

A Global Magnitsky Bill, which broadens the scope of the US Magnitsky Act to human rights abusers around the world was passed in December 2016. Estonia adopted Magnitsky legislation in December 2016, and the UK followed in April 2017. These are great successes, but my fight for justice continues.

And most worryingly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Putin ends up starting a major military conflict with the West at some point in the future to save his own skin as head of state in Russia.

If you put tariffs in place, it creates inflation. If you put inflation in place, you have to raise interest rates. You raise interest rates, and stock markets shouldn’t be so high.

The main thing that I’ve learned since writing ‘Red Notice’ is not so much about Russia but about how many very legitimate people in the West have sold their souls to the Russians to help them in their terrible goals outside of the country.

When you come from a family of communists and you go through your teenage rebellion, what’s the best way of rebelling from a family of communists? Well, I put on a suit and tie and became a capitalist… There was nothing I could do to upset my family more than that.

My grandfather was a justice fighter. I go to Russia and I find worse injustice than he had ever discovered. My task was investing people’s money. But this was far beyond that. I became this sort of crusader.

If the oil price goes down, Russia will go down. You can track the Ruble, you can track the stock market, just off the price of oil.

One thing I can tell you: with the threat of death hanging over you, you live life to the fullest.

My grandfather was an American Communist, and he married my grandmother, who was a Russian Communist. During the 1950s, the McCarthy era, my family was viciously persecuted.