U.S. should respond with 'all hell and fury' to arrest of American in Russia: Bill Browder
All American citizens abroad could become bargaining chips, says anti-Kremlin critic
The U.S. should react to the arrest of one of its citizens in Moscow with "all hell and fury," according to prominent anti-Kremlin critic Bill Browder.
"If this is allowed to go through, if this is allowed to happen, then all Americans become bargaining chips in every authoritarian regime," Browder told The Current's guest host Geoff Turner.
"If this brazenness goes unpunished, then the world becomes a truly lawless place," he added.
Paul Whelan was arrested by Russian authorities on spying charges on Friday.
The former U.S. marine was born in Ottawa, but now lives in Michigan where he is the head of global security for an auto parts supplier. Speaking to CBC News, his twin brother David Whelan said the detained man is innocent, and was in Moscow to attend a wedding.
The Current requested comment from the Russian embassy in Ottawa but did not receive a response.
Browder, a British hedge fund manager, became a vocal critic of Putin after his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in police custody in Moscow in 2009. He urges governments to adopt the Magnitsky Act, a set of measures that target the assets of Russians officials who violate human rights.
He told Turner that the U.S. should take a strong position, and that "there should be no spy swap."
"It should be very simple: the American government should sanction another seven rich Russian oligarchs, as they did in April of this year, because that's the stuff that Putin really hates."
The arrest itself was unusual, he added, and "reeked of something else going on."
"In the world of espionage and counter-espionage, people generally don't get arrested — they get caught, they get taken to the airport, and they get deported."
"That's what's happened when Russia has found American alleged spies and that's what happens when the West finds Russian spies," he said.
Browder argued that the detention could be motivated by the U.S. conviction of Russian woman Maria Butina on a conspiracy charge.
Butina was accused of acting as a Russian agent to infiltrate the powerful gun lobby group NRA and influence U.S. policy toward Moscow. She pleaded guilty in December, and has agreed to co-operate with the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
"That is a very bad situation for Vladimir Putin, and Vladimir Putin had no leverage," Browder said.
"What better way to create leverage than to grab an American, arrest him, put him in Lefortovo Prison, which is this dungeon underneath the KGB building, and then make a big international incident out of it?"
Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.
Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Samira Mohyeddin and Julie Crysler.