The Real Reason Putin Invaded Ukraine — Sir Bill Browder

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:00)
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**Bill Browder** (1:26)
Putin said, real simple, 50% for Vladimir Putin.
And that was the moment that Putin became the richest man in the world.
And that was the moment that my life changed forever. I hire the smartest lawyer I know in Russia, a guy named Sergei Magnitsky. They chain him to a bed, and eight riot guards with rubber batons beat Sergei Magnitsky until he died. And so it became clear there was no chance of getting justice inside of Russia. So I said, how do we get justice outside of Russia? So why not take away their ability to use their money in the West? And that became known as the Magnitsky Act. The reason that he's doing this war is that he stole so much money that he's afraid of his own people. And so the best way to have your own people not get mad at you is to create somebody else for them to be mad at. It's Machiavelli 101, create a foreign enemy, start a war.

**Konstantin Kisin** (2:25)
So Bill Browder, welcome to TRIGGERnometry.

**Bill Browder** (2:27)
Great to be here.

**Konstantin Kisin** (2:28)
It's great to have you. You have one of the most fascinating stories to tell, having gone from growing up in the United States, being the grandson of a communist, a labor organizer, going to Russia as a capitalist at this point, and then getting into very big trouble with the Putin government over some terrible events. And then, of course, some of the work you've done after that as an activist as well. So tell us the story.

**Bill Browder** (2:57)
Well, it's a long story. So I guess we should start at the very beginning.
You mentioned my grandfather. His name was Earl Browder, and he was a labor union and organizer from Wichita, Kansas. He was so good at organizing the union, he was spotted by the communists. And they said, if you like labor unionism, you're going to love communism. Why don't you come and check it out? He went from Wichita to Moscow. He did what many other young American men do when they get to Moscow. He met a young Russian girl who became my grandmother. My father was born there. And then five years later, he returned to America and became the general secretary of the American Communist Party. He ran for president twice against Roosevelt in 1936 and 1940 Obviously didn't get that many votes. He was imprisoned by Roosevelt in 1941, pardoned in 42 At the end of the Second World War, when there was no longer any kind of relationship or need for a relationship between Russia and the United States, Stalin kicked him out of the Communist Party and started... In fact, he started murdering...
My grandfather, Earl Browder, he had something called Browderism, and they started murdering his followers in Eastern Europe. The 1950s start, the McCarthy era. He gets persecuted, obviously, for being a Communist. So this is my family legacy. I was born in 1964 I'm 62 years old. When I was going through my teenage rebellion, I was trying to figure out, how do you rebel from a family of Communists? And I grew my hair long, and it grew into an afro. You can't tell now.
That didn't seem to upset my family. I follow the Grateful Dead around the country.