Perhaps the story of one very wealthy man going up against the Russian state seems indulgent against the backdrop of the nightmare unfolding in Ukraine. Being Ukrainian, It certainly gives me a deep understanding what it means to go through all the struggles working in russia and then wrestling its criminal ways of existence for many years. What if, instead of driving me to the police station, they drove me to an airstrip, put me on a private plane, and whisked me off to Moscow?

There’s something deeply offending to our sense of justice about an innocent man framed by powerful forces. He’d dealt with all my Russian troubles so well, but I was sure he was following this ordeal on Twitter, overcome with worry. He spoke quickly to the officers, and then said, “These gentlemen will give you a few moments to pack. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I explained how, in 2008, Sergei had been taken hostage by corrupt Russian officials and ultimately killed in jail as my proxy.I may not have been kidnapped, but I was now in the Spanish criminal justice system on a Russian arrest warrant. Eighteen months later, Hermitage’s offices were raided by the Russian authorities and its paperwork removed. This personal account of Browder's battle for justice is at times terrifying, at times deeply touching - and leads inexorably to a vast money-laundering scheme the Kremlin will seemingly stop at nothing to cover up. A graduate of Stanford Business School, he arrived in Moscow in the late 1990s, via a stint in London, determined to make his fortune. I hadn’t been in a fistfight since ninth grade, when I was the smallest kid at a boarding school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but I was suddenly ready for a physical confrontation with these men if that meant avoiding being kidnapped.

He stepped aside when the doors opened, making room for me to exit first, but once we were in the hall he shuffled past me, stopping in front of a white door. What concerned him was that his presidential suite would be unavailable so long as it contained my belongings. It’s a fear that Alexandre Dumas and Alfred Hitchcock tapped into to dramatic effect, but what is most troubling here is how acquiescent the western establishment has been to Russian crimes and lies.He handed me a room key with both hands cupped in a vaguely Japanese manner and stepped from behind the counter. Out of the blue, Putin offered to swap some Russian intelligence agents for Browder, and in a joint press conference Trump said that he thought it was “an incredible offer”. Then in 2003 Putin jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, at the time the richest oligarch in Russia, and instead of opposing corruption, began putting the squeeze on the duly intimidated oligarchy. As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime. I leave this this book feeling frustrated that many avoided the consequences of their actions, greed prevailing regardless of the murders, blackmail and coercion and that Putin is still in power, that Trump is once more attempting to grab the presidency and that we seem to be on the verge of something even more terrifying unless these people are stopped.

The manager talked about what an honor it was to have me as a guest, even though I doubted he knew anything about me beyond which credit card I carried. If something like this ever happens again,” she said, “and you can’t reach anyone, post it on Twitter. He expertly walks us through the ins and outs of various legal strategies and developments that include enough high drama, plot twists and colourful characters for a movie.

In terms of western relations with Vladimir Putin, Bill Browder has performed the role of the canary in the coalmine – or perhaps goldmine would be more fitting. I was either being kidnapped or arrested, but the world outside was oblivious, enjoying a day of sightseeing.