"Putin's money was at risk"

The founder of the Hermitage Capital Foundation William Brighter is going to speak to the US Senate as part of the hearing about illegal lobbying for the interests of other countries in the United States. They can talk about them about the activities of the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, about which the world media have been talking about in recent days, after it became known about her participation last summer in a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. , the son of the current president of the United States, and other members of the then camp headquarters of Trump-father.

It is known about Veselnitskaya that in the United States she defended the interests of Denis Katsk, the son of the former Minister of Transport of the Moscow Region Peter Katsk. He was suspected of laundering money stolen from the Russian budget. The materials of this criminal case, in particular, served as the basis for the appearance of the Magnitsky Law in the United States, imposing sanctions against several Russian corrupt officials and people involved in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in the Moscow pre -trial detention center.

The current television channel "Present" has been told in detail earlier .

Veselnitskaya later stated that William Brighter gathered compromises for her and her family and transferred him to the US State Department.

What the founder of the Hermitage Capital Foundation wants to American senators, and where does a lawyer from Russia, William Brighter said in an interview with "Realue."

-As we now understand, the whole last year in Washington was a large-scale campaign against the "Magnitsky Law" in Washington, and Natalya Veselnitskaya participated in it, which met with Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner. What can you say - the Russian authorities really hoped that the new US president would cancel this law?

- To begin with, Putin does not like the "Magnitsky Law". He does not like him, because he was one of the beneficiaries of the laundering scheme of 230 million dollars, which was revealed by Sergey Magnitsky, for which he was killed. Putin made the cancellation of the Magnitsky Law a priority of his foreign policy. And over the past year, a group led by Natalia Veselnitskaya knocked on every possible door in search of sympathetic in order to achieve the abolition of the Magnitsky Law.

The meeting with Donald Trump Jr. was only one in a whole series of such meetings. This also happened on the Capitol Hill, where they talked with many members of the congress, trying to enlist their support. In my opinion, this operation completely failed. But this does not mean that they had a lack of necessary resources to conduct it.

- When you talk about Putin as a beneficiary, do you mean Sergey Roldugin ?

- As recognized by the majority, Sergei Roldugin, a cellist, appearing in the documents from the Panama Archive , represented Putin's interests. Roldugin made a profit from these criminal actions. I do not know what share of this money goes to Putin, but the fact that Roldugin made a profit says that Putin was a beneficiary.

-In one of your interviews, you said that Putin actually helped with his decisions the adoption of the Magnitsky Law in other countries, but do you think that he was to some extent interested in this law, in parts and, in general, because of his internal decisions?

- I think that the "law of Magnitsky" is interested in Putin for two reasons. Firstly, in the future his personal money may be frozen. Putin is kleptocrates. During his reign, he appropriated a large amount of money that he stores in offshore. And suddenly this money was at risk. Therefore, he was worried and nervous.

Secondly, he asks people in his environment to commit serious crimes on his behalf: to arrest people, put them in jail, torture, in some cases to kill them in order to take possession of their property. And in order to force his people to perform these terrible actions, he must guarantee their impunity. He must ensure that nothing will happen to them. In the past, he succeeded, but now, beyond Russia, circumstances have developed outside of Russia, and this threatened his regime. He can no longer guarantee the impunity of his people, and this upset him.

- As for Natalia Veselnitskaya, she was a lawyer Denis Katsy, who is suspected of laundering money from the Russian budget. What do you think this business was closed is connected with a meeting in New York?

- As I understand it, the main goal of the meeting was an attempt to cancel the "Magnitsky Law". In fact, we do not know anything about the meeting. We cannot believe any word Veselnitskaya. She has already told a lie in many of her public statements. And since the Trump team constantly offers new versions of the details of this meeting, we cannot believe them. That is, in fact, we do not know anything about what exactly happened at this meeting in Trump Tower.

- How much is a large role, in your opinion, do Natalya Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin played with her at the meeting in Russian lobbying?

-Pyotr Katsyv, a former vice-president of Russian Railways, a former vice-governor of the Moscow Region, who occupied a very high position in Putin’s regime, financed this operation. And the operation was led by Natalya Veselnitskaya. She received funds. Here, in America, she hired Rinat Akhmetshin. For the campaign, large lawyer firms, lobbying companies, PR managers and private detective bureaus were also involved. Veselnitskaya was the main coordinator of this campaign in the United States.