‘Red Notice’ was a term I didn’t understand until reading the last chapter of Browder’s memoir. A Red Notice is a notification Interpol, the international criminal police investigation, has on society’s members who have a provisional warrant out for their arrest. For Bill Browder, if he steps foot into Russia, he will be incarcerated and most likely, face the same fate as his lawyer— being beaten to death in a prison cell. This tragedy, along with what Browder uncovered in Russian politics, is what is at stake in “Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice”.
Published in October 2015, Red Notice follows the story of a Wall Street investor who, following his instincts, decides to invest in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. This led to Bill Browder making his fortune and becoming expertly immersed in Russian finance. However, once he exposes corruption in the Russian government, he becomes a target and barely escapes with his life. His lawyer is not as fortunate—tortured to death in a prison cell, Sergei Magnitsky is the man whom Browder made it his mission to find justice in his life. When Browder succeeded in helping pass a law, the Magnitsky law, which punished those responsible for his torture and subsequent death, Putin famously retaliated with a law that banned Americans from adopting Russian orphans. Browder’s determination to change things is testament to how his commitment as an “accidental” activist led him to seek justice for the fatal human rights violation Magnitsky faced.
What was most compelling about this book is how Browder makes use of his history (interestingly, he is descended from the head of the American Communist Party) and what brought him to seek out his career-making moment in Russia. Most of the book revolves around how Browder, a mathematical genius, worked his way to the top and earned himself millions in a hedge fund he invested in Eastern Europe. One of the more interesting aspects of the book is how Browder makes finance jargon understandable and the book is written in such a way that you find yourself following along with his defeats and successes, even if you don’t have a lick of interest in or comprehension of economics. When Browder was posted in Russia, I think that in some ways, Browder fell in love with the place, which made finding justice even more crucial. He understood who the Russian people were—good people who were frightened into being bystanders by their government. He fell in love and married a Russian businesswoman.
What is most gut wrenching about the story is how the most ordinary people suffer at the hands of a corrupt regime. That’s not to say the elite deserve to have their human rights violated but what is most chilling about Magnitsky’s story is that he could have been anyone. The reader could see themselves in Magnitsky and, when we are shown the details of how slow and agonizing his death was, it is difficult to believe that a government would do this to one of their people
Tellingly, this memoir sheds light on the oligarchs and elites at the highest ring of power within Russia. The same can be said of the current administration in the White House and peoples’ fears of Russian intervention in American politics. Corruption runs deep and, as Browder found out, if a government has their people frightened badly enough, no one will stand up for those targeted.
“Hard to put down . . . Red Notice is part John Grisham-like thriller, part business and political memoir.” Andrew Ross Sorkin, of the New York Times, writes. Lee Child, a bestseller himself, also gave it a positive nod: “Reads like a classic thriller, with an everyman hero alone and in danger in a hostile foreign city . . . but it’s all true.” There were those who were moved by the story but were turned off by Browder’s self-importance—admittedly, his tone can sometimes be grating but I found I was more immersed in the kind of story he was telling which makes you forget how superior the narrator’s voice may seem. What is perhaps most impacting about Red Notice is how, at times, certain passages take your breath away when you can’t believe what your reading. There is that punch-in-your-gut feeling when you realize that Browder’s fortunes are about turn upside down when he is expelled from the country he made his name in. Grating or not, Browden is an expert at drawing you in and keeping you there, holding your breath for when the penny drops.
Red Notice exposes to the world the depth of corruption, in government as well as the human heart. But even when the odds are against you, even when Interpol’s warrant is out for your arrest, Browder shows that it is still possible to find justice, even for one man, and change the world.
Meagan Gove
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