The Browder affair is a heady
upper-class Jewish cocktail of money, spies, politicians and international
crime.
ISRAEL SHAMIR • JUNE 20, 2016
William F. Browder, Chief Executive
Officer Hermitage Capital Management. Copyright by World Economic Forum
swiss-image.ch/Photo by Michael Wuertenberg. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Chapeau, Mr Browder! Hats off for
this incredible man. Last month, he succeeded in stopping a film screening in the European parliament and took off a few
articles from American web sites. This week, he turned the only US screening of
a film critical to his version of events into a ruckus. No freedom of speech for his enemies! His lawyers
prowl around and issue summons to whoever digs in his sordid affairs. His hacks
re-wrote his Wikipedia entry, expunging even discussions of the topic: despite hundreds of edits, nothing
survived but the official version. Only a few powerful men succeed purifying
their record to such an extent. Still, good fortune (a notoriously flighty
lady) is about to desert Mr Browder.
Who is this extremely influential
man? A businessman, a politician, a spy? The American-born Jewish tycoon
William Browder, says The Jewish Chronicle, considers himself Putin’s Number One enemy. For him,
Putin is “no friend of the Jews”, “cold-blooded killer” and even “criminal
dictator who is not too different from Hitler, Mussolini or Gadhafi”. More to a
point, Browder is the man who contributed most to the new cold war between the
West and Russia. The roots were there, still he made them blossom. If the US
and Russia haven’t yet exchanged nuclear salvos, do not blame Browder: he tried.
For a valid reason, too: he was hit by cruel Hitler-like Mr Putin into his most
susceptible spot, namely his pocket. Or was there even a better reason?
Browder, a grandson of the US
Communist leader, came to Russia at its weakest point after the Soviet collapse,
and grabbed an enormous fortune by opaque financial transactions. Such fortunes
are not amassed by the pure of spirit. He was a ruthless man who did as much as
any oligarch to enrich himself.
Eventually he ran afoul of Mr Putin,
who was (and is) very tolerant of oligarchs as long as they play by the rules.
The oligarchs would not be oligarchs if they would found that an easy
condition. Some of them tried to fight back: Khodorkovsky landed in jail,
Berezovsky and Gusinsky went to exile. Browder had a special position: he was
the only Jewish oligarch in Russia who never bothered to acquire the Russian
citizenship. He was barred from returning to Russia, and his companies were
audited and found wanting.
