My Interview with Bill Browder at The Dispatch
Go check it out. Browder is the driving force behind the law President Biden is using to sanction Vladimir Putin.
In this interview, Browder spoke to me about how he thinks Magnitsky would react to the unfolding Ukraine crisis, the strengths and deficiencies of the sanctions imposed on Putin and his oligarch trustees thus far, what President Biden should do next, the importance of disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT payment network, whether the energy sector should be included in future sanctions, how he feels about the possibility that Donald Trump could again be elected president of the United States, and many other topics.
I also asked Browder how he felt when he learned in 2018 that Putin had personally asked Donald Trump to hand him over to Putin — a suggestion that Trump called an “incredible offer” — and how he felt this week watching video of Trump praising Putin as a genius for his invasion of Ukraine. In a sane world, Browder’s answer would be a wake-up call for anyone contemplating the horrific possibility of a Trump presidential run in 2024.
Go read it all, and leave a comment over there.
Good get; great read.
Try for a get w/Kasparov. Watched a piece w/him not long ago on C-SPAN where he gave an honest analysis. In short, he said he was a chess player and as such can see all the pieces on the board, their limits and what moves to anticipate from a singular opponent. But Putin is a poker player, hence one or multiple opponents are limited to the certainty of the cards they hold and can merely estimate what he or others are holding until played.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/27/2022 @ 12:13 pmGood interview. Thank you for sharing.
Time123 (bb28d9) — 2/27/2022 @ 12:15 pmRed Notice was another great recommendation by you, Patterico.
mg (8cbc69) — 2/27/2022 @ 4:32 pmThanks.
The small number of comments here don’t reflect the quality of the interview.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/27/2022 @ 4:37 pmI’m usually stingy with internet compliments, but the author’s questioning covered all the bases, and Browder is a knowledgeable and had great insight into the Russian dictator.
Good interview, nice job.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/27/2022 @ 5:57 pmGreat interview with a person in the know. I tried to leave a comment, but it appears one has to be a paid subscriber to The Dispatch in order to do so.
Maybe it’s a good thing to let the EU take the lead on this. It’s human nature to resist suggestions by other people. When I was in high school my dad offered to pay for me to get my pilot’s license. I didn’t do it, because it was his idea!
Another thing. The more we talk about accepting Ukrainian refugees, the less likely they are to stay and fight. Besides, the U.S. isn’t about to let 44 million people in.
norcal (5948da) — 2/27/2022 @ 6:11 pmInteresting. That’s pretty gangster, other people holding Putin’s money for him in their names. Also pretty medieval. It was done in England, notably during the Wars of the Roses, and led to the Statute of Uses.
nk (1d9030) — 2/27/2022 @ 6:12 pmWell done, Pat! This is a great piece. Are you going to contribute to the Dispatch regularly, or was this a one-off?
Demosthenes (3fd56e) — 2/27/2022 @ 7:57 pmA lot like Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman who became Public Enemy Number One for the Orange Gazpacho.
nk (1d9030) — 2/28/2022 @ 5:23 amWell done.
lurker (59504c) — 2/28/2022 @ 8:24 pm