The Atlantic

How Russia Tries to Catch Its ‘Criminals’ by Abusing Interpol

Vladimir Putin has once again gamed the system to get an anti-corruption activist arrested in a Western democracy.
Source: Pawel Kopczynski / Reuters

It was over almost as soon as it began, but not before it was live-tweeted. Bill Browder, the hedge-fund manager and Putin fan turned human-rights activist and anti-Putin crusader, was in Spain to give evidence in anti-corruption proceedings implicating the Russian government, according to his Twitter account. And then he tweeted this, accompanied by a photo apparently from the back of a Spanish police car: “Urgent: Just was arrested by Spanish police in Madrid on a Russian Interpol arrest warrant. Going to the police station right now.”

Within two hours, he a selfie with this caption: “Good news. Spanish National Police just released me after Interpol General Secretary in Lyon advised them not

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