The book contains a long discussion about freezing the assets of one company in particular whose money passed through New York banks.  It eventually paid a multi-million dollar fine.  Law enforcement is a continuous theme.  But whose laws and whose enforcement?  That is the question that is repeatedly raised.

 

Of course, Browder and his family had to be constantly on guard against being attacked and even kidnapped by those working for Russia, or even police who thought they were acting on a legitimate arrest order.  These “adventures” are what make this book exciting.

 

Not surprisingly, Putin is a main character even though he lurks in the background.  He comes across as truly evil.  Although the book closes before the Ukraine invasion, no one reading Browder’s assessment would be surprised that it happened.

 

It’s a good thing he made a lot of money before embarking on a career of punishing human rights violators. Staying alive and out of jail turned out to be very expensive.

 

It’s unfortunate that he didn’t spend a little of that money on an index for this book.  It’s chock-full  of names, mostly Russian.  It’s easy to forget who is who. It would have been useful to look them up in order to catch up.  Browder should do a second edition with an index and a few guides for those of us who aren’t up on who’s who in Russia and money laundering.

 

Copyright © 2022 Jo Freeman