Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Putin turns up heat on hedge fund boss Bill Browder

The Times

The Kremlin has escalated its battle with Bill Browder by announcing that it will seek the arrest of the outspoken hedge fund manager in a new case.

Mr Browder, the founder of Hermitage Capital, was a prominent foreign investor in Russia during the early years after the fall of communism, but he was barred from the country seven years ago amid allegations of tax fraud. The American-born investor is now based in Britain, where he has been a critic of President Putin’s administration. He has lobbied fiercely recently for restrictions on travel to the United States and Britain by Russian officials accused of involvement in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for Hermitage, in a prison in Moscow in 2009.

Moscow retaliated this month by barring 18 Americans from entering Russia. Yesterday Russia’s Interior Ministry said that it would seek Mr Browder’s arrest on charges dating back to the 1990s.

According to a statement by Hermitage, Russian prosecutors have alleged that Mr Browder embezzled shares in Gazprom, defying rules against foreign ownership, and then used his illegitimate stake to try to influence the gas giant’s management.