The extraordinary story of how the American-born British financier Bill Browder’s Moscow-based Hermitage Capital was targeted in one of the most brazen frauds in history has gained worldwide publicity, in large part through the courage and tenacity of Browder.

Shortly after Browder had been refused entry to Moscow on his return from London in November 2005, special forces from the Russian Interior Ministry raided his company’s offices, seizing corporate documentation.  These were used to fraudulently re-register Hermitage’s holding companies in the name of an ex-convict, after which the perpetrators of the fraud applied successfully for a $230 million tax rebate.  

Sergei Magnitsky, one of the Hermitage Fund’s Moscow-based lawyers, testified against the perpetrators and was subsequently jailed on trumped-up charges. He fell ill and died in prison after being denied the medical help he needed.  After his death Browder lobbied the US Congress to pass the “Magnitsky Act”.  Since 2016, the bill, which applies globally, authorizes the US government to sanction individuals who it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the US.  Similar, landmark legislation was passed in Britain, Canada and other countries.

The crime which Magnitsky had sought to expose was both sophisticated and complex.  From the start, WorldPR helped Browder devise a strategy to communicate the story to the world, including policymakers and legislators on both sides of the Atlantic.  The campaign was launched with a ten-minute film posted on YouTube in English and Russian that used professional actors to re-enact the crime. The film caused shock waves when viewed in Russia and Browder went on to produce three more films on aspects of the crime and its aftermath.

From the start, WorldPR advised Browder that the only effective way to achieve his objective of punishing those Russian officials who were ultimately responsible for the crime, as well as for the death of Magnitsky, was to target the individuals involved – not the Russian state. The success of this strategy was reflected in the response to his campaign.  In October 2017 the Russian government sought to place Browder on Interpol’s list of criminal fugitives.  While visiting Spain in May 2018 he was arrested by the Spanish authorities on a new Russian Interpol warrant. He was released after two hours when Interpol confirmed that this was a political not criminal matter. 

Since then, Browder has vigorously continued his campaign to expose the criminal nature of certain elements of the Russian state.

YouTube video:  Hermitage Reveals Russian Police Fraud

In February 2000 an unexpected political drama unfolded in Austria. The newly elected federal government, led by the centre-right People’s Party politician Wolfgang Schüssel, was placed under diplomatic sanctions by the European Union and banned from meetings of the European Council. The trigger for this unprecedented demarche against a fellow EU member state was the secret denunciation by the Austrian president, Thomas Klestil, of his own country’s government.

Klestil was violently opposed to the inclusion in the coalition of Joerg Haider, leader of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPO).  This was the first time that the FPO had been included in government at federal level, although it was no stranger to coalition in municipal and regional government:  since 1956 it had been a frequent and dependable partner of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP).  From its inception, the SDP helped to nurture the FPO by providing it with state funding from the Ministry of the Interior, which it controlled.  The FPO became the instrument with which the SDP could split the centre-right vote at federal elections.  By including Jorge Haider in the new People’s Party-led coalition, Wolfgang Schüssel had beaten the SDP at its own game, but in so doing he had deeply antagonised the post-war Austrian political Establishment.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, was particularly outspoken and led an aggressive campaign of public vilification of the Austrian government.  Despite the confrontational stance adopted by France, however, it soon became apparent that the sanctions against Austria were unworkable and politically embarrassing to the European Union.   WorldPR was hired by Lord Tim Bell to advise the Austrian foreign minister, Mrs. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, on a strategy to resolve the impasse and communicate a positive narrative based on the true record.  The result was a dynamic, Europe-wide campaign that significantly changed the balance of opinion and ended in the complete lifting of the EU’s sanctions against Austria.

Working closely with Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner, WorldPR organised a diplomatic, political and media tour of the key European capitals, including London, Paris and Madrid.  High-level meetings included speeches to lawmakers and leading opinion-formers at which the Austrian Foreign Minister presented a carefully researched report that showcased Austria’s exemplary record of social justice and economic achievement since the Second World War.  Austria’s success story included the peaceful integration of the largest proportion of foreign-born nationals of any country in the European Union – fully 25 per cent of the population.  This seminal report was converted into a pamphlet and distributed in multiple languages to key audiences throughout Europe. 

The second prong of the campaign was to assemble a committee of respected external experts to provide a balanced and unjaundiced view of Austrian society.   The three experts, Professor Jochen Frowein, the director of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland, and Marcelino Oreja, the former Spanish government minister, gave the Schüssel government high marks for taking concrete steps to fight racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism.  The committee issued their clean bill of health and on 12^th September 2000 the, almost immediately after that, the EU Council lifted all sanctions against Austria.

The European Union Lifts Sanctions Against Austria, The New York Times, 12^th September 2000

When the comedy film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” was released on the world’s cinema screens in 2006, it produced a tsunami of international media acclaim.  Warmly received by critics and the industry, the film’s chief protagonist, Sacha Baron Cohen, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in comedy and the film was nominated for multiple awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay at the 79^th Academy Awards, and by The Guardian. It was also a huge financial success, grossing $262 million at the box office worldwide.

Unfortunately, this global phenomenon was marred by the immediate and palpable sense of injury that it generated in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia.

To ordinary Kazakhs the enthusiastic reception the film received among audiences worldwide came as a nasty shock. Its title apart, Borat had no connection whatsoever to Kazakhstan. It was filmed in Romania, not Kazakhstan. The languages spoken by Borat and the lead actors included Hebrew, Armenian, Czech and Polish, but not Kazakh. The azbuka script was cod-Russian, not Kazakh. Even the cast did not contain a single Kazakh actor. For these reasons, the Kazakh government was, at least initially, as deeply offended as its citizens. It was puzzled as well as offended when Borat dominated US news bulletins during the state visit to Washington of the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in 2006.

Although Kazakhs were understandably slow to recognise it, Borat the movie in fact provided a huge opportunity. Despite its size – Kazakhstan is larger than Western Europe – many Americans and Western Europeans unlikely to tell you where it is or cite a single fact about it. Borat provided the occasion to launch a global branding campaign for Kazakhstan that had the potential, quite literally, to put the country on the map.

The initial brief of WorldPR had been to counteract the false and misleading impression created by the film; our task was seen largely as a damage limitation exercise.  But we were able to do much more than that, transforming the negative attitudes created by the film-makers into genuine interest and curiosity about a country of which very little was known.  Instead of trying to dampen interest in Borat we used the controversy surrounding the movie to place media talking-points and news items as well as op-eds in The Guardian (make hyperlink to article) and The Spectator (make hyperlink to article) to explain the facts about Kazakh’s growing political and economic significance and (see below).

Sure enough, over time, Borat the movie played an important role in sharpening Kazakhstan’s visibility, enabling us to draw attention to its rapid economic growth, improving living standards and educational standards as the country ascended the regional ladder to assume a leadership role in Central Asia. Tourism boomed as a direct consequence of the movie while media interest in the country also grew significantly. The result was a noticeable change of mood and approach in Kazakhstan.  In November 2006, on visit to the London, President Nazarbayev displayed his sense of humour when he asked at a press conference in Downing Street if there was a question “from our dear friend Borat”. This gesture, which was widely reported, reflected the fact that something that had originally been perceived as grossly unfair and a PR disaster had been transformed into a successful demonstration of effective soft power. The episode has undoubtedly influenced the way in which the country has successfully leveraged Sasha Baron Cohen’s latest iteration of Borat to its advantage.

Article by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, The Spectator, 25^th November 2006

Article by Erlan Idrissov, The Guardian, 4^th October 2006