'Putin won't rest until I'm dead': Brit businessman feared he was being KIDNAPPED by Russian loyalists during arrest in Spain
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A British businessman and Kremlin critic feared he was being kidnapped when Spanish police arrived at his hotel with an Interpol arrest warrant - and said Vladimir Putin will not rest until he's dead.
Bill Browder told Mirror Online he believes the Russian president is abusing international law in a desperate attempt to kill him.
He found himself at the centre of an international storm this morning when he was taken into custody, amid fears he could be extradited to Russia - where he believes he would be murdered.
The hedge fund manager has successfully lobbied for tough sanctions against Russia following the death of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in a Russian prison in 2009.
Mr Magnitsky exposed a £174 million corruption ring involving senior officials - allegedly including Putin himself - and was reportedly tortured before he died.
Since his death, Mr Browder has lobbied countries across the world to bring in sanctions against those involved - and defiantly said Putin's strong-arm tactics will not intimidate him.
(Image: Billbrowder/Twitter)
Mr Browder said Putin is desperate to silence him - and the Russian leader has in the past even gone as far as accusing him of being a 'serial killer'.
The businessman, 54, one of the Kremlin's most high-profile public enemies, was released this morning, less than two hours after his arrest.
After returning to London he told Mirror Online: "It is clear that Russia is abusing Interpol and using all their tools to get me back to Russia to kill me."
He had been due to meet a Spanish prosecutor to discuss Russian corruption when the manager at the hotel he was staying in and two cops appeared at his door.
The businessman recounted: "I wasn't 100% sure they were police officers, they didn't show me any ID, and when I said can I call my lawyer they said no.
"I thought I was being kidnapped."
After quickly gathering his belongings, Mr Browder was put in the back of a police car, fearing for his life.
Convinced he was in danger, he tweeted a picture from the back of the car, alongside the words: "In the back of the Spanish police car going to the station on the Russian arrest warrant.
"They won’t tell me which station."
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
The officers, who spoke little English, initially tried to stop outside a building which wasn't a police station, he said, telling him it was procedure to see a doctor first.
"We had a standoff and they eventually took me to a police station," he stated. "It was only when I got there that I realised it wasn't a kidnapping, I was relieved."
He added: "I thought I'd been very careful about avoiding these situations, but they'd finally got me."
When he arrived at the Madrid police station, he was finally shown an Interpol warrant saying he was accused of fraud in Russia.
But, he said, he was allowed to leave after senior figures within Interpol confirmed to local police that the warrant was not valid.
(Image: AFP)
"When it got to the higher levels of Interpol, I was allowed to leave," he said.
And he believes it is part of a concerted effort to intimidate him. "Every time a Magnitsky Act gets passed, Russia puts me on the Interpol list," he stated.
Mr Browder received a phone call from British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in the aftermath, with Mr Johnson expressing his relief at his release.
The cabinet member later tweeted: "Just spoken to Bill Browder – very glad that he has now been released. Moscow should concentrate on bringing those responsible for the murder of Magnitsky to justice."
Mr Browder has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in his absence on fraud charges by a Russian court - charges which he dismisses as ludicrous.
He said: "I assume it's the same allegation, but it could be new allegations, there's no shortage of creativity in the Russian police.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
"They want to get me into a Russian prison. Killing me in the west would create a huge backlash, but they could do it quietly in a Russian prison and have plausible deniability."
Mr Browder said: "Putin is very angry with me, he doesn't like people who find ways of creating consequences for him."
Mr Magnitsky was allegedly tortured in prison after reportedly being convicted on false charges.
In 2012 US President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act, a law to punish Russian human rights violators, into law after lobbying by Mr Browder.
And two years later the European Parliament voted in favour of sanctions against 30 Russians alleged to be involved in the Magnitsky case.
There are now seven countries with Magnitsky laws in place, including the UK, with sanctions on Russian oligarchs given royal assent last week.
And Mr Browder alleged that Putin is personally affected each time a Magnitsky Act is passed.
"He is an an extremely rich man, he has a fortune of around $200 million which he keeps in the west," he said.
"Each time an act is passed, it puts his own fortune at risk.
"He personally sent an emissary to Trump Tower (calling for the act to be repealed), this shows how he feels about it.
"We know he was a recipient in the crime which Sergei was killed over."
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
Despite fears for his own safety, Mr Browder remains defiant, stating: "I'm single-mindedly dedicating my life to getting justice for Sergei, I'm not going to let them get away with it."
"It won't affect me in any way, I'm carrying on."
He is due to address the Danish parliament next week, and is confident that Magnitsky Act laws can be passed in seven more countries.
"I think talking about this so publicly is my biggest security," he said.
"People who are unknown and enemies of the Putin regime are dying in great numbers."
He said the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a deadly nerve agent in Salisbury earlier this year highlighted the dangers Putin's enemies face.
Mr Browder said: "My security has been at a high level for a very long time."
Last year Russia's investigative committee alleged that Mr Browder was behind the deaths of three men in connection with the fraud case.
The dead men have been named as Octai Gasanov, 63, Valery Kurochkin, 55, and Sergei Korobeinikov, 67, and they died in 2007 and 2008.