99,147 views Jun 29, 2019

Vladimir Putin offered Donald Trump a swap at the now infamous Helsinki summit: I’ll let you interview the twelve Russian agents accused of hacking DNC emails, if you give my team access to Bill Browder.

Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and author of the 2015 New York Times best-seller Red Notice, which recounts his experience as the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Join Browder for an evening of conversation about Putin, hacking, and why his human rights activism has him lodged so firmly under Putin’s skin.

This conversation was recorded during the 2019 Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The week-long event is presented by the Aspen Institute in partnership with The Atlantic. Prominent leaders and thinkers across business, politics, media, culture, science, and more participate in hundreds of panels, interviews, presentations, and screenings.

Learn more at https://www.aspenideas.org

Tweeted via Focus OmniTweet:

Why Russia Hacked Our Election | https://tinyurl.com/bdddbpu8 | Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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 ~ Bill Browder

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 ~ Bill Browder

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 realised his soul was very dark ~ Bill Browder

I’m not an American citizen ~ Bill Browder

Putin offered to allow American investigators to interview the 12 Russian intelligence agents just indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in exchange for allowing Russians to have access to me and those close to me ~ Bill Browder

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 ~ Bill Browder

Since 2012, Putin has made it perhaps his largest foreign policy priority to have the Magnitsky Act repealed. But none of his efforts have worked. Not only has it not been repealed, it’s spread to six additional countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, the Baltic states and Gibraltar ~ Bill Browder

I’ve never made a political donation to Hillary Clinton or any other political candidate ~ Bill Browder

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

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 ~ Bill Browder

If you can present your case clearly and visually, anyone can understand it. No one has an attention span ~ Bill Browder

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 ~ Bill Browder

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 ~ Bill Browder