By Lucy Komisar
Dec 19, 2019

Tom Graham, managing director at Kissinger Associates, spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations Dec 17th on prospects for stability in U.S.-Russian relations. He is on the moderate side of the current Russophobia.

But he had to start out by informing everyone what a bad guy Putin is. This is required by American analysts to prevent being attacked as Putin acolytes. Sort of like the McCarthy era loyalty oaths.

Graham thinks the current U.S.-Russia situation is dangerous. He thinks that the U.S. and Russia need to deal with common concerns, such as nuclear arms control and terrorism. He made a lot of sense in advocating that, no, we should not go to war with Russia and, yes, there are real shared interests.

But when it came to William Browder and his Magnitsky hoax, he was back in the realm of Russophobic fakery. Here is the Komisar-Graham Q & A.

Thomas Graham, Kissinger Associates; Kimberly Martin, Barnard College chair Dept of Political Science; Michael Moran, former journalist, lecturer U of Denver, filmmaker.

LUCY KOMISAR: Der Spiegel in Germany has just published a major investigation documenting that investor William Browder, famous for promoting anti-Russian Magnitsky Acts around the West, is a fraudster, a tax cheat and his Magnitsky story on which the U.S. and other Magnitsky Acts are based, is a fabrication, in some cases based on his forged documents. That Magnitsky was not a whistleblower but his tax accountant, whose death in a Russian prison resulted from mistreated illness, with no evidence of murder.

As the Magnitsky Act is a major impediment to better U.S. relations which Tom, which you advocate, will you examine and if you agree, speak out on the Der Spiegel revelations?

TOM GRAHAM: That‘s a question directed towards me, I think, right?

There has been a large debate about Magnitsky over the years. I haven‘t read the Der Spiegel so I don‘t know what the details are of that. I‘ve seen some other information over time. I tend to believe that the broad outlines of Browder‘s story are in fact correct. And I‘ve seen some of the dissenting views as well, but I think it‘s correct.

That said, I wasn‘t supportive of the Magnitsky Act. I don‘t think that it makes sense to levy sanctions against the Russians for that purpose. It was certainly a mistake on the American part when this was first announced to put the focus exclusively on Russia, not give it a global focus. That I think has been corrected, but my own sense is that these types of sanctions do very little to improve the situation inside Russia. They do very little to punish the individuals that are engaged in acts that we find problematic, in part because those people don‘t bank in the United States and they don‘t generally take their vacations in the United States. And so I would put this issue to the side if I possible could in the relationship.”

Graham is no stranger to Russia issues. He focuses on Russian and Eurasian affairs at Kissinger Associates, Inc., and was special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia on the National Security Council staff from 2004 to 2007 under George W. Bush.

He should be aware that the purpose of the Magnitsky Acts, as Browder campaigns for them, is not to promote better human rights in Russia, but to erect a barrier to protect himself from Russian justice for his $100million in tax frauds and illicit stock buys. See this.

And that the U.S. Magnitsky Act and the international Browder Magnitsky campaigns are impediments to the better relations he, Tom Graham, seeks. That was clear when Russian President Putin raised it in his meeting with U.S. President Trump. So, if there is evidence that the Magnitsky story is fake, he should want to look into it.

I emailed him:

Following the Council lunch today,

Here are the links to the Der Spiegel articles that prove without a doubt that William Browder is a fraudster and his Magnitsky story is a fabrication. If you have other evidence as you indicated, I’d like to see it. So I can provide relevant comments and most likely proof that his documents are fake. Because one of the things the Der Spiegel report found is that Browder forged documents to prove his case.

The first story English with link to German and English Spiegel stories.

The second story, Speigel’s response, including links to Browder’s complaints to the editor and to the German press commission. This is in my English story with links to Speigel’s German and English versions of the response and also to the original stories German and English.

I have investigated Browder’s corruption for years. Here are two stories, all with documents. If you say you believe him, I’d like to know your evidence.

Magnitsky in fraud story 2017 in 100Reporters. Earlier story 2014 about another Browder corruption involving Avisma, also 100Reporters. [Avisma was a titanium company that Browder and partners bought and whose profits they skimmed.]

This will eventually all come out. Would be good for you as an analyst whose work is based on facts, not ideology, to examine it now. Glad to provide other evidence.

No response.

To see the meeting, go here for text and video.

Direct to the video:

Please file under: The corruption of the system.

Because you will not read this story in U.S. mainstream or progressive media, which on the issue of Russia are corrupt. If I am wrong and you see a story about Der Spiegel’s take-down of Browder, let me know.