Putin's Great Nemesis
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2018
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Businessman Bill Browder was singled out by Russian President Vladimir Putin, at his summit with US President Donald Trump, as a "person of interest".
In an extended interview, Manuela Saragosa asks the man who was once the biggest foreign fund manager in Russia how he came to incur Mr Putin's ire, and about his campaign to get Western nations to pass a "Magnitsky Act" imposing sanctions and visa restrictions on Russian individuals. Plus Dr Florian Otto of political risk consultancy Maplecroft explains what Mr Browder's case can tell us about the risks of doing business in Russia.
Producer: Laurence Knight
(Picture: Bill Browder testifying to the US Senate; Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:08.1 | I'm Manuel Salagossa. |
| 0:09.5 | In this edition, how an American-born businessman became one of President Putin's biggest enemies. |
| 0:15.4 | The Russians are after me. Putin is after me. |
| 0:17.5 | They're trying all sorts of different tricks to harm me. |
| 0:20.6 | They'd love to kill me if they |
| 0:21.6 | could, kidnap me, take me back to Russia. That's Bill Browder, grandson of the leader of the |
| 0:27.0 | American Communist Party, now an investor-turned human rights champion. President Putin called him |
| 0:32.7 | out by name at this week's press conference with Mr. Trump in Helsinki. So why exactly has the Russian leader got it in for him? |
| 0:39.9 | We hear from Mr Browder and ask, |
| 0:42.1 | what does his story tell us about the risk of doing business in Russia? |
| 0:45.9 | That's all here in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:52.4 | Earlier this week, President Trump and Putin spent two hours in a one-on-one conversation in Helsinki. |
| 0:59.1 | No one knows exactly what was said behind those closed doors. |
| 1:02.6 | What we do know, though, is that Mr Putin came up with a suggestion for President Trump, |
| 1:06.6 | a suggestion related to the ongoing US investigation into Russian interference in America's 2016 elections. |
| 1:14.1 | The Russian president said he'd let American investigators come over to Russia and be present |
| 1:18.5 | at the questioning of Russian intelligence officers charged with that American political interference. |
| 1:24.0 | In return, though, Mr Putin wanted permission for Russian investigators to question some Americans about their activities in Russia. |
| 1:31.5 | Among other people, Mr. Putin was interested in Bill Browder, the American-born businessman and CEO of an investment fund company called Hermitage Capital. |
| 1:39.8 | In fact, he mentioned Mr. Browder by name in the joint press conference with President Trump. |
| 1:45.2 | For instance, we can bring up Mr. Browder in this particular case. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.