Interesting excerpt below from this week's blog from Jack Wheeler (https://www.tothepointnews.com/) explaining Putin's over the top measures to get the Magnitsky Act repealed.
Written in 2014 but becoming more relevent recently. Explains a lot about everything Putin is doing and saying about all of Russia's involvement in world affairs. Scary stuff.
************"Time for Hero of the Week. You’ll be surprised that he’s the grandson of the former leader of the US Communist Party, Earl Browder.
A chapter in his book is entitled, “How Do You Rebel Against a Family of Communists?” His answer: “Toward the end of high school it hit me. I would put on a suit and tie and become a capitalist. Nothing would p**s my family off more than that.”
So he did, becoming a centimillionaire by age 40. Yesterday (7/27), he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. What he said was so explosive it made headlines around the world such as: Expelled Top Russia Investor Tells Congress Putin Has Stashed Away $200 BILLION.
He’s Bill Browder � and I couldn’t encourage you more strongly to read his extraordinary book Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice.
I couldn’t put it down � it reads like a high-powered fiction thriller but it’s all true. I also encourage you to read the full text of his testimony yesterday.
He explains how Putin allowed him to expose oligarch corruption (and thus increase the value of his Russian stock investments to $4 billion) when the oligarchs were a threat to Putin � but when the oligarchs joined Putin and gave him personally as much as 50% of what they were making, “From that moment on,” Browder testified, “Putin became the biggest oligarch in Russia and the richest man in the world, and my anti-corruption activities would no longer be tolerated.”
In particular, Putin had Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky who had uncovered Putin’s theft of $230 million in taxes Browder’s company had paid the Russian government, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered in 2009.
Browder retaliated by persuading Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act in 2012. Putin’s proxies had hidden the $230 million outside Russia. The act froze their assets in and denied them visas to the US � which infuriated Putin to act in vicious ways. Browder explained why. Here’s the full OMG quote from his testimony yesterday � it’s very important for you to read this carefully:
“There are two reasons why Putin acted so maliciously: First, since 2012 it’s emerged that Vladimir Putin was a beneficiary of the stolen $230 million that Sergei Magnitsky exposed.
Recent revelations from the Panama Papers have shown that Putin’s closest childhood friend, Sergei Roldugin, a famous cellist, received $2 billion of funds from Russian oligarchs and the Russian state. It’s commonly understood that Mr. Roldugin received this money as an agent of Vladimir Putin.
Information from the Panama Papers also links some money from the crime that Sergei Magnitsky discovered and exposed to Sergei Roldugin. Based on the language of the Magnitsky Act, this would make Putin personally subject to Magnitsky sanctions.
This is particularly worrying for Putin, because he is one of the richest men in the world. I estimate that he has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains from these types of operations over his 17 years in power.
He keeps his money in the West and all of his money in the West is potentially exposed to asset freezes and confiscation. Therefore, he has a significant and very personal interest in finding a way to get rid of the Magnitsky sanctions.
The second reason why Putin reacted so badly to the passage of the Magnitsky Act is that it destroys the promise of impunity he’s given to all of his corrupt officials.
There are approximately ten thousand officials in Russia working for Putin who are given instructions to kill, torture, kidnap, extort money from people, and seize their property. Before the Magnitsky Act, Putin could guarantee them impunity and this system of illegal wealth accumulation worked smoothly.
However, after the passage of the Magnitsky Act, Putin’s guarantee disappeared. The Magnitsky Act created real consequences outside of Russia and this created a real problem for Putin and his system of kleptocracy.”
Browder then gave the sordid details of Putin’s desperate efforts to pay sleazy lobbyists and smear artists to see anyone they could to argue for Magnitsky Repeal � thus the meeting between them and Donald Trump Jr. Browder blew the Trump Jr. Russia Collusion story out of the water. See this exchange between Browder and Lindsay Graham on Fusion GPS Was Acting on Behalf of Russia.
I have met Browder socially a number of times, as he’s a friend and partner of a very dear friend of mine. He’s a very nice, unassuming, and smart guy with a photographic memory. But read his book and his testimony and you realize this is the bravest man on the planet.
Bill Browder is hands down the HFR Hero of the Week.
There’s one extremely interesting lesson Browder has taught us. Leftie cartoonists are fond of drawing Trump as a puppet dangling from Putin’s strings. It’s the other way around. The Magnitsky Act allows Trump to have Treasury seize Putin’s assets hidden in Western banks. Who’s the puppet now? "
online for kindle;;https://kickass.unblocked.pub/red-notic ... 16538.html