Thursday, December 31, 2009

Hot money controls in Russia

The Journal yesterday ran a story about how Putin wants to institute controls on capital flows in and out of Russia to stem the toing and froing of "hot money." One wonders if one-time Putin supporter Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital fell into this class before Putin locked him out of the country at that time, before Browder's lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died at the age of 37 of pancreatitis acquired in prison, one week before being released from prison because the state had failed to bring him to trial within a year. I kind of doubt it. Putin, though popular, remains the kleptocrat par excellence.

This talk by Browder is pretty amazing.

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