Event | Stop Putin at the source: Q&A with Bill Browder, anti-corruption expert

Stop Putin at the source: Q&A with Bill Browder, anti-corruption expert and leader of Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign on effective sanctioning in the Netherlands

Where: The Nutshuis at Riviervismarkt 5, The Hague

When: Thursday 12 May 2022, 18:30 – 20:00

Register: Click here (tickets limited)

On March 31, 2022, in an unprecedented address to the Dutch parliament Ukrainian president Zelensky thanked the Dutch for leading the effort in support of Ukraine. And yet in the parliamentary debate that followed, it became apparent that one of the main instruments at our disposal to help the Ukrainians and stop Putin – sanctions – seems to have been grossly unutilized by the Dutch government. In the meantime steps have been taken and some assets have been frozen, but the question is: is it enough? And what can we learn from this case to stop war, gross human rights violations and corruption at the source?

The NHC would like to invite you to a public debate on the role of the Netherlands in preventing support to war, human rights violations and corruption, in the form of a Q&A with Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, and leader of Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign. Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US $230 million of state taxes. Sergei testified against state officials involved in this fraud and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial and systematically tortured. He spent a year in prison under horrific detention conditions, was repeatedly denied medical treatment, and was killed in prison on November 16, 2009, leaving behind a wife and two children.

Since then, Mr. Browder has been leading the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign which seeks to impose targeted visa bans and the freezing of assets of corrupt officials. Bill Browder just published a new book “Freezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath”

Join us on 12 May for a Q&A with Bill Browder on the topic of effective sanctioning and learn more about how to stop supporting individuals and regimes that are involved in human rights violations and corruption. The session will be moderated by Kirsten Meijer, Executive Director of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee as well as joined by Sergei Golubok, prominent lawyer and human rights defender from Russia and Sangeeta Goswami
Policy Advocacy Adviser and Communications Manager of the Human Security Collective.