Over the weekend, I had the privilege of listening to Bill Browder, the American businessman-turned-activist who became Russian President Vladimir Putin's number one enemy after exposing his corrupt regime.
Browder, who recently published Freezing Order after the success of Red Notice in 2015, was a major investor in Russia after the fall of communism through his Hermitage Capital Management. He invested over $4.5 million in the Russian economy before he was suddenly declared a threat to the Russian state for asking hard questions about corruption and governance.
Browder enlisted the services of top Russian attorney Sergei Magnitsky after his offices were raided by 25 Russian securocrats. Magnitsky made a huge breakthrough: he uncovered that the documents seized during the raid on Hermitage were fraudulently used to reregister Browder's companies in the names of new directors and shareholders.
The fraudulent documents were used to apply for a $230 million tax refund and Magnitsky blew the whistle - at a very high cost. The Russian authorities arrested him and tortured him to death.
"I have no reason to doubt that the order came from Putin," Browder told his South African audience on Saturday as he spoke at the Franschhoek Literary Festival during a session moderated by Tony Leon.
Unfortunately, Browder was not physically in Franschhoek out of fear for being arrested by Putin's allies in the rest of the world. Yes, the businessman who took on Putin's murderous regime believes travelling to his house in Cape Town could place his life at risk.
Life's mission
After Magnitsky's murder by the Russian state, Browder made it his life's mission to expose corrupt, brutal and murderous regimes and lobbied US lawmakers to seize the dollar assets and visas of those responsible for Magnitsky's death.
He succeeded and the Magnitsky Act was the result of his lobbying. Similar acts were signed into law in many other democracies and in 2019, the Guptas and their partner Salim Essa were blacklisted by the US in accordance with the Act.
Bill Browder is a friend of South Africa. He supported the anti-apartheid campaign as a young American student, organised protests in support of the ANC and compares Magnitsky's fate to that suffered by Steve Bantu Biko in 1977 after being tortured by the apartheid state.
Browder is outraged about South Africa's position on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"This is not something I will easily forget," he said, telling Leon he is unlikely to return to South Africa soon, despite owning a house here.
Initially, he thought the ANC's close links to Russia were through former president Jacob Zuma, who made no secret of his adoration for Putin and tried to push through the R1 trillion nuclear deal with Rosatom at all costs.
Putin's friends
But after the country's defence of Russia at the United Nations, where South Africa refused to condemn Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine and the resultant human rights abuses, Browder is in no doubt that the entire government, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, are Putin's friends.
He was shocked when I told him about the ANC's link to a manganese mine in the Northern Cape partly owned by a Putin ally and oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and that this may explain the ANC's stance on the Russian war.
In short: United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) is 49% owned by a Vekselberg-entity registered in Cyprus called New African Manganese Investments (NAMI).
The other 51% of the lucrative mine, which paid a R2.4 billion dividend in 2020, is a South African consortium called Majestic Silver Trading 40 (MST).
In turn, MST is partly owned by the ANC's Chancellor House.
Between UMK, MST and Chancellor House they have donated R22.5 million to the ANC in the past year. This is according to official party funding donations data released by the IEC.
Vekselberg has been sanctioned by the US and had his luxury yacht seized after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He has been declared a "Special Designated National" by the US and global assets in which he owns 50% or more will also be frozen by the US.
It is no coincidence his company owns 49% of South Africa's fourth-largest manganese mine that coincidentally has become the governing ANC's largest funder.
Browder has "no doubt" that this scheme is a primary driver of South Africa's immoral support of Russia in a time of war. He has seen what Putin is capable of doing. He has warned us. We ignore his ominous words at our own peril.
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