(William F. Browder is Earl Browder's grandson. His Hermitage Capital Management is described in the article as "the largest foreign investment fund in Russia." Earl Browder was the leader of the CPUSA during WWII. Shortly after the Cold War began, Stalin dumped him because he was seen as too conciliatory to the West.)
Investors Rally Around Putin, Discounting Alarm of Critics
By Susan B. Glasser Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, February 26, 2004; Page A14
MOSCOW -- To his fierce and increasingly worried critics, President Vladimir Putin is a grave threat to post-Soviet democracy, a would-be authoritarian intent on building "capitalism with a Stalinist face," as one reformist leader put it.
But investor William F. Browder sees it differently. Never mind the arguments about a creeping coup by Putin's KGB colleagues, the war in Chechnya, the state takeover of television or even the jailing of Russia's richest man. To Browder, Putin is a true reformer, "the one ally" of Western capitalists who have come to Russia to create a new market economy but have found themselves adrift "in a sea of corrupt bullies."
"What's the worst-case scenario?" asked Browder, who has bet $1.3 billion in the investment fund he runs on the success of the Putin presidency. "That I misjudged and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But I just don't think the objective here is Stalinism."
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7272-2004Feb25.html
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