美国国家公共电台 NPR Putin Critic Says He's Afraid the Kremlin Would 'Wipe Me Out One Way Or Another'

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A top critic of Vladimir Putin has been accused of murder. Financier William Browder lives in London. American-born but now a British citizen, Browder was once the largest private foreign investor¹ in Russia. He made a lot of money and in the process, uncovered Russia's web of corruption³ and fraud.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now after Browder and his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a multimillion-dollar corruption scheme, his lawyer, Magnitsky, was imprisoned⁴ and died in prison a year later under suspicious circumstances. In response, Browder pushed the United States to pass what is now called the Magnitsky Act, a law that punishes human rights abusers by freezing their American assets and banning them from the U.S.

MARTIN: Now, in a bizarre twist in this story, Russia is accusing Browder of murdering his lawyer. They issued an Interpol arrest warrant. And on Sunday, Browder said he was denied entry into the U.S. William Browder joins us now on the line from our studio at the BBC in London. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

WILLIAM BROWDER: Great to be here.

MARTIN: Before we get to the substance of the allegations against you, I just want to clear up the travel issue. Because of this warrant out for your arrest, you were denied entry into the U.S. Now that's been cleared up?

BROWDER: Yes, it has. So the Interpol warrant had been issued last week by Vladimir Putin. This was the fifth time he's come after me trying to use Interpol. And I discovered that I couldn't travel to the United States. I have a British passport, and my British visa was effectively cancelled at the airport when I tried to travel. And so it was kind of odd that some - that effectively, the U.S. at least either implicitly⁵ or explicitly⁶ was working with Vladimir Putin to going after one of their - chasing one of his political vendettas⁷...

MARTIN: Although, as I understand it, it's kind of an automatic thing. If there's an Interpol arrest out for someone, then that's something that's automatically triggered. But now it's all been resolved for you at this point. Now you're turning your attention to the arrest warrant itself. So as I understand it as of right now, if you leave the U.K., you'll be arrested?

BROWDER: That's correct. So basically what happens with Interpol is that any country - there's 190 members - they can put a notice on their system for anybody they want. And then every other country in the world effectively has to arrest that person. So if I cross an international border anywhere, even, you know, a supposedly sort of good country, nobody - the guys at the border in their uniforms aren't looking at the substance of it. They're just saying there's an arrest warrant out for this guy. So I will be arrested if I cross a border.

MARTIN: So you are being charged by the Russian government for murder, for murdering your lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. Why do you think Russian prosecutors⁸ are charging you with this now?

BROWDER: Well, so, I mean, it's a very long story, but basically, Sergei Magnitsky was arrested after he uncovered a $230 million government corruption scheme. He was imprisoned. He was tortured for 358 days, and he was killed nine years ago in Moscow in prison. I was expelled from Russia a number of years before that. And so I've been basically out of Russia for almost 12 years now. But what I've been doing is to try to get justice for the murder of Sergei Magnitsky. I've gone around the world, and I've gotten sanctions in place against Russia, against Putin's cronies. And they're named after...

MARTIN: And we should say - the Magnitsky Act. You talked about these sanctions. I mean, this is now U.S. law - that the U.S. put these sanctions in place in part because of your efforts.

BROWDER: Indeed. So I went first to the U.S., then I went to Britain. I went to various countries around the world, most recently Canada. And all of these countries have passed what's called the Magnitsky Act. And the Magnitsky Act imposes visa sanctions and asset freezes on the people who killed Sergei Magnitsky and the people who do similar types of human rights abuses in Russia. And this infuriates Putin. He's just so mad.

MARTIN: So people will also know this name because it came up. Donald Trump⁹ Jr. famously met in the summer of 2016 during the election with a lawyer, a Russian lawyer, who had been lobbying for the U.S. to rollback those sanctions, the Magnitsky Act, which we should say Russia then limited U.S. adoptions¹⁰ in retaliation¹¹. So this has been going on for a long time. You are now being charged with the murder, though, of someone whom you were actually very close with, right? Can you just say more about your personal relationship with Sergei Magnitsky?

BROWDER: Well, so Sergei was my lawyer, and most importantly, when he was put in this terrible position where they started to torture him to try to get him to withdraw his testimony¹² against corrupt² officials and they wanted him to sign a false confession¹³ to say that he stole the money and he did so on my instruction, and Sergei, in spite of all this torture, would refuse to perjure¹⁴ himself and refused to bear false witness. And the torture got worse and worse and worse. And what this whole situation showed was that this is a man of just true and incredible integrity and the face of what Russia should have been. But in the end, he was killed at the age of 37, leaving a wife and two children.

And it's the most Kafkaesque thing you could ever imagine that after I've spent eight years of my life fighting for justice for Sergei Magnitsky, going around the world, passing laws in his name, that the Putin regime has the unbelievable sort of nerve to then accuse me of murdering him. It's just - it's just beyond belief, and it's so unbelievable and so outrageous¹⁵ that it shows that they're really getting rattled¹⁶, that Putin is very, very upset by the consequences of the Magnitsky Act and how it affects his personal interests.

MARTIN: I mean, you know - you know firsthand because of what happened to Sergei Magnitsky that vocal¹⁷ critics of Russia can suffer serious, sometimes deadly, consequences. How do you feel now? Do you feel safe?

BROWDER: Well, I definitely don't feel safe if Russia has an Interpol arrest warrant out for me and I'm apprehended¹⁸ somewhere and then Russia tries to extradite me back to Russia where they will then kill me in prison. And so it's all very scary. It's not just arrest. They could try to assassinate¹⁹ me on the street. They could kidnap me. They've made these threats. And so I am genuinely Putin's No. 1 foreign enemy. And they'd like to wipe me out one way or another.

MARTIN: You still feel like you need to talk, though.

BROWDER: Absolutely.

MARTIN: William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, critic of the Kremlin, talking to us from our studios at the BBC in London. Mr. Browder, thanks so much for your time this morning.

BROWDER: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF ODDISEE'S "AFTER THOUGHTS")

1 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

2 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

3 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

4 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

5 implicitly   

adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地

参考例句：

• Many verbs and many words of other kinds are implicitly causal. 许多动词和许多其他类词都蕴涵着因果关系。
• I can trust Mr. Somerville implicitly, I suppose? 我想，我可以毫无保留地信任萨莫维尔先生吧？

6 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 vendettas   

n.家族世仇( vendetta的名词复数 )；族间仇杀；长期争斗；积怨

参考例句：

• I'm not getting involved in your personal vendettas. 我没有牵扯到你们的私人恩怨里。 来自互联网

8 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

9 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

10 adoptions   

n.采用，收养( adoption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Adoption agencies are always so open to alternative family adoptions. 领养中介机构永远都对领养家庭敞开。 来自电影对白
• The number of adoptions has grown in the past year. 去年，收养子女的数字增加了。 来自互联网

11 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

13 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

14 perjure   

v.作伪证；使发假誓

参考例句：

• The man scrupled to perjure himself.这人发伪誓时迟疑了起来。
• She would rather perjure herself than admit to her sins.她宁愿在法庭上撒谎也不愿承认她的罪行。

15 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

16 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

17 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

18 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

19 assassinate   

vt.暗杀，行刺，中伤

参考例句：

• The police exposed a criminal plot to assassinate the president.警方侦破了一个行刺总统的阴谋。
• A plot to assassinate the banker has been uncovered by the police.暗杀银行家的密谋被警方侦破了。