Interpol Rebuffs Putin On Demand For Whistleblower’s Arrest

Interpol_logo225px-Vladimir_Putin_official_portraitThere is an interesting conflict that has arisen between Interpol and the Putin government. Putin’s government has demanded the arrest of UK-based fund manager William Browder for his alleged tax evasion and told Interpol to put him on its list of wanted individuals. In a rare denial, Interpol decided that the Putin regime was pursuing Browder for offenses “of a predominantly political nature” and refused to assist the Russians.


Browder once ran the investment company Hermitage Capital which did business in Russia’s equity market. He eventually became disheartened by the level of corruption and the authoritarian practices under Putin, especially after the suspicious death in 2009 of Sergei Magnitsky, a Hermitage lawyer investigating a $230 million tax fraud.

220px-Sergei_MagnitskyAs we have previously discussed, Magnitsky (right) was arrested after going public with corruption charges against Russian officials and died in police custody in the “Sailor’s Silence” prison.

Interpol refused to inform its member nations of Russia’s demand for Browder’s whereabouts or to assist in his arrest among its 190-nation system.

Browder’s order of arrest occurred days after the U.S. moves to bar travel by various Russians involved in the abuse and corruption scandal. Prosecutors insist that Browder and Magnitsky conspired to underpay taxes by $16 million by using tax breaks for disabled employees. The orders (including a posthumous charge against Magnitsky) were condemned internationally as trumped up charges and a return to Soviet era abuses of the legal system by Putin’s regime.

As we have discussed earlier, Putin himself has been accused of squirreling away billions during his tenure.

Source: New York Times

14 thoughts on “Interpol Rebuffs Putin On Demand For Whistleblower’s Arrest”

  1. Based on the precedent set by the US, Russia would be well within its rights to send a drone over British airspace and eliminate this suspect.

  2. For a second I imagined I was reading this as Obama after Julian Assange

  3. Mike,

    Do you really think we are going to do anything about Putin right now? They appear to be holding one of our spy’s for trying to recruit Russian for intelligence.

    At present our banksters and oil companies are heavily invested in the Russian oil market. I was speaking to an executive for Exxon the other day and they are dropping new pipe and running lines.

    So long as we do that and the banksters and oil folks own this government our hands are tied.

    1. “Do you really think we are going to do anything about Putin right now?”

      AY,

      Not a chance. Putin’s Russia is in fact the model for what we here are heading towards.

  4. The defendant should go into hiding for a few years to save his life.

  5. Putin should be on a “no fly” list. It is said that he porked a hooker in Sweden and did not use a condum. When it leaked out he got all puttin about it.

  6. Benardo 1, May 28, 2013 at 9:06 am

    I wonder if other country’s use Interpol for purely political purposes…..I wonder if Assange is on the list….. Good for Interpol…..
    __________________________________________
    Ask the Brits. Assange should be allowed to go to Ecuador.

  7. The difference between Putin and Stalin so far is only one of degree. Give Putin time though. He seems to be a sociopathic autocrat cut from the same cloth. When communism fell this country rushed in to send advisers to help the transition to capitalism. Unfortunately, it was the kind of capitalism being imposed on us today.

  8. I wonder if other country’s use Interpol for purely political purposes…..I wonder if Assange is on the list….. Good for Interpol…..

  9. As we have discussed earlier, Putin himself has been accused of squirreling away billions during his tenure.
    ————————————————————-
    Big surprise. Bill Gates buys his neighbor’s property whenever they sell and leaves it vacant. He doesn’t want anybody else to live there. The guy is innocent.

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