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Red Notice by Bill Browder | A 15-minute Summary & Analysis: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Red Notice by Bill Browder | A 15-minute Summary & Analysis
PLEASE NOTE: This is an unofficial summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book.
Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of Red Notice Summary of entire book Introduction to the Important People in the book Key Takeaways and Analysis of Key Takeaways Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style- GenresNonfictionRussia
24 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 25, 2015
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392 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 18, 2015
How to make a monstrous fortune off a failed communist behemoth and then whine about the trouble you caused.
February 4, 2021
I read the complete version of this, which isn't on Goodreads, and was well worth it to go on the journey.
The book follows Bill Browder, who despite the catchy click-bait title, has a fascinating story. The book starts out inspiring you to look for your own opportunities, especially where you think you have an edge. Sometimes you work hard enough, lucky enough and different enough to really find a good opportunity. Seize it.
Then his story moves on to his proclivity to take risks. The worst case from that new job he took in the beginning is that he is still a BCG guy who went to Stanford BS. He can find another one.
He quickly learned that when a company culture is tough and management is unruly enough, something is going on. And he discovered how important it is to keep things close to your chest, because everyone is looking for their story or break and that could hurt you.
Ask them how they’d like to do business with each other. Respect saying no. First boss saying okay we can maybe make eastern Europe work. Billionaire helping him find an asset management partner.
His journey ended up allowing him to meet the right people with enough money to start his own thing, taking advantage of a truly inefficient Russian market. It was crazy learning what the Russian government can do to a business. They pinned fake tax fraud on him, then took over a company without him knowing, and hired a fake lawyer to represent his company and plead guilty immediately. All with the support of policemen and higher-ups.
This all took place not too long ago, which made the last few chapters interesting. You learn about what happens in a certain realm of business meets politics and how much power even recently government and insiders have in controlling the narrative and people.
There was a lot in the book that made me think about how I would handle certain situations he was placed in both in business and with his friendships and colleagues. He never gave up though and used his story as a way to push for true legislative change in the U.S. government and abroad. One of the most different business books I have read.
The book follows Bill Browder, who despite the catchy click-bait title, has a fascinating story. The book starts out inspiring you to look for your own opportunities, especially where you think you have an edge. Sometimes you work hard enough, lucky enough and different enough to really find a good opportunity. Seize it.
Then his story moves on to his proclivity to take risks. The worst case from that new job he took in the beginning is that he is still a BCG guy who went to Stanford BS. He can find another one.
He quickly learned that when a company culture is tough and management is unruly enough, something is going on. And he discovered how important it is to keep things close to your chest, because everyone is looking for their story or break and that could hurt you.
Ask them how they’d like to do business with each other. Respect saying no. First boss saying okay we can maybe make eastern Europe work. Billionaire helping him find an asset management partner.
His journey ended up allowing him to meet the right people with enough money to start his own thing, taking advantage of a truly inefficient Russian market. It was crazy learning what the Russian government can do to a business. They pinned fake tax fraud on him, then took over a company without him knowing, and hired a fake lawyer to represent his company and plead guilty immediately. All with the support of policemen and higher-ups.
This all took place not too long ago, which made the last few chapters interesting. You learn about what happens in a certain realm of business meets politics and how much power even recently government and insiders have in controlling the narrative and people.
There was a lot in the book that made me think about how I would handle certain situations he was placed in both in business and with his friendships and colleagues. He never gave up though and used his story as a way to push for true legislative change in the U.S. government and abroad. One of the most different business books I have read.
April 22, 2022
I only vaguely knew that the Magnisky Act was enacted to punish Russians who had murdered a person. I knew that as retaliation, Putin stopped American adoptions of Russian children. This book tells the story leading up to the passage of that law. It reads as if it is a script from Hollywood. The actual events and the murder of Sergei Magnisky are surreal. Highly recommend this book.
July 16, 2015
This is by far the best political thriller I've ever read. It takes place during the transition from communism to capitalism in the former USSR through 2012. The details of the greed, corruption and pure evil in Russia and former USSR are riveting, Bill Browder, a Stanford graduate goes to the USSR to build his fortune in investments. He then becomes a victim of the oligarchs who expel him from Russia and spend the next many years their vendetta, which turns him into a political crusader. I dare you to put this book down.
July 16, 2017
"Red Notice" is a real-life thriller about an American-born financier in the wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young attorney and his dangerous mission to expose the people responsible in the Kremlin.
What a timely read involving Putin and his dangerous group of murderers and conspirators. It continues today. Best book I've ever read.
What a timely read involving Putin and his dangerous group of murderers and conspirators. It continues today. Best book I've ever read.
March 21, 2016
Few books have made me take a day off work coz I HAD to know how this ends. There's so little we know about Russia and the state of affairs there. I know, a little more than I knew yesterday. Frighteningly more. Must Read!
December 1, 2017
Excellent account of the Russian manipulation and intimidation they inflict on anyone who doesn't go with party lines.
June 20, 2023
This book was recommended by my brother Dan and it took me awhile to get to reading it. But once I started, it was a very fun, intriguing true story.
The author Bill Browder – in time – did indeed seem to have become the number one enemy of Putin. Maybe that is a stretch, but Putin surely did come to know him.
The book starts in November 2005 when, on a routine flight into Moscow, Browder was stopped, held overnight, and then deported back to London, where he was living at the time with his wife. All this is told in the present tense.
Then he switches into the past tense to describe the events that led up to the actual writing of the book in 2014.
Those events are described from his perspective and do provide the author’s education, his fascination with the post-Communist world in Eastern Europe, his subsequent disillusionment, and ultimately a lobbyist for travel and foreign asset restrictions on Russian officials involved in human rights abuses.
He is the grandson of Earl Browder (1891-1973), the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the United States.
He rejected his family’s socialism, and determined early on to become a capitalist. Yes, a rebel. However, he had no money so it had to start in another way.
The next best thing he could do was find a way to attending a high profile business school and make one’s way up the ranks that manage big business and big finance.
The fall of Communism opened up what seemed to be huge new possibilities for capitalism in Eastern Europe. Browder recalls his excitement at these new possibilities. Alas, he ended up in Sanok in an isolated part of South-Eastern Poland, in October 1990, advising on the rescue of the Autosan bus plant. Production had stopped there, when the Polish Finance Minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, a fiscally austere man. Another word is CHEAP. The IMF cancelled a large contract for this firm to build busses. They really had one choice, fire everyone and close up. Browder moves on from there.
There are large differences with the way in which financial business is conducted in the United States vs Russia. In the US, finance buys government, and corporations settle their differences in the law courts. In Russia (as indeed in most countries?) governments buy finance, and corporations settle their differences using more traditional, political, even police instruments.
The climax of the book is an account of the murder of Magnitsky, Browder’s attorney, in police custody in Moscow, in 2009. This shocked Browder into a determination to secure justice for Magnitsky. Browder’s hard fought efforts in D.C. resulted in the 2012 passing by the US Congress of the ‘Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act’, banning the granting of US visas and freezing the US assets of the officials involved in the death of Magnitsky. This was a huge win for Browder.
Recently he explained to a class of graduates at Stanford Business School the horrors of doing business in strange and exotic parts of the world where business disputes are settled using gangsters rather than law courts. It is this that leads him to his conclusion that the Russian state under Vladimir Putin is essentially a kleptocracy.
The initial part of this book reflects that it is necessary to understand Russian history, geography, and society. The initial part of the book does a good job of providing a background of its history. As well as how it continues to emerge in the world today.
This book does engage with American economic development and its peculiarities such as the presence of slavery and the availability of ‘free’ land for settlement. It is this kind of broad understanding of Russian social, political and economic development that is necessary to understand the Russian state as it is today. The book provides some of a glimpse of Russian history and how it has “weathered” all the internal political turmoil and how the leadership views the world on the “outside”.
The author Bill Browder – in time – did indeed seem to have become the number one enemy of Putin. Maybe that is a stretch, but Putin surely did come to know him.
The book starts in November 2005 when, on a routine flight into Moscow, Browder was stopped, held overnight, and then deported back to London, where he was living at the time with his wife. All this is told in the present tense.
Then he switches into the past tense to describe the events that led up to the actual writing of the book in 2014.
Those events are described from his perspective and do provide the author’s education, his fascination with the post-Communist world in Eastern Europe, his subsequent disillusionment, and ultimately a lobbyist for travel and foreign asset restrictions on Russian officials involved in human rights abuses.
He is the grandson of Earl Browder (1891-1973), the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the United States.
He rejected his family’s socialism, and determined early on to become a capitalist. Yes, a rebel. However, he had no money so it had to start in another way.
The next best thing he could do was find a way to attending a high profile business school and make one’s way up the ranks that manage big business and big finance.
The fall of Communism opened up what seemed to be huge new possibilities for capitalism in Eastern Europe. Browder recalls his excitement at these new possibilities. Alas, he ended up in Sanok in an isolated part of South-Eastern Poland, in October 1990, advising on the rescue of the Autosan bus plant. Production had stopped there, when the Polish Finance Minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, a fiscally austere man. Another word is CHEAP. The IMF cancelled a large contract for this firm to build busses. They really had one choice, fire everyone and close up. Browder moves on from there.
There are large differences with the way in which financial business is conducted in the United States vs Russia. In the US, finance buys government, and corporations settle their differences in the law courts. In Russia (as indeed in most countries?) governments buy finance, and corporations settle their differences using more traditional, political, even police instruments.
The climax of the book is an account of the murder of Magnitsky, Browder’s attorney, in police custody in Moscow, in 2009. This shocked Browder into a determination to secure justice for Magnitsky. Browder’s hard fought efforts in D.C. resulted in the 2012 passing by the US Congress of the ‘Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act’, banning the granting of US visas and freezing the US assets of the officials involved in the death of Magnitsky. This was a huge win for Browder.
Recently he explained to a class of graduates at Stanford Business School the horrors of doing business in strange and exotic parts of the world where business disputes are settled using gangsters rather than law courts. It is this that leads him to his conclusion that the Russian state under Vladimir Putin is essentially a kleptocracy.
The initial part of this book reflects that it is necessary to understand Russian history, geography, and society. The initial part of the book does a good job of providing a background of its history. As well as how it continues to emerge in the world today.
This book does engage with American economic development and its peculiarities such as the presence of slavery and the availability of ‘free’ land for settlement. It is this kind of broad understanding of Russian social, political and economic development that is necessary to understand the Russian state as it is today. The book provides some of a glimpse of Russian history and how it has “weathered” all the internal political turmoil and how the leadership views the world on the “outside”.
September 30, 2019
Red Notice did not disappoint. Well-written memorialization of the horrid complexities facing American businesses in Russia. The story is truly an education in the machinations and ruthlessness of Putin and the Russian government.
Red Notice is also a story of camaraderie, friendship, and family. The amalgamation that inspires a passionate commitment to bring justice for a friend and Russian lawyer, the late Sergei Magnitsky. His friendship with Browder ultimately led to the U.S. Congress' bipartisan vote for the Magnitsky Act (formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012).
While reading, an understanding of the Russian government and its psychology of capitalism deepens.
Red Notice is also a story of camaraderie, friendship, and family. The amalgamation that inspires a passionate commitment to bring justice for a friend and Russian lawyer, the late Sergei Magnitsky. His friendship with Browder ultimately led to the U.S. Congress' bipartisan vote for the Magnitsky Act (formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012).
While reading, an understanding of the Russian government and its psychology of capitalism deepens.
September 29, 2021
I rarely read nonfiction at bedtime but this book kept me reading well into the night. It is Bill Browder's story and how he naively traded in Russia, believing himself to be untouchable by the Russian authorities. Mr Browder tells his story in a clear, straight-talking way, which it makes it all the more powerful. It is a story of bravery, sacrifice and grief but most of all, it is one of hope.
February 28, 2018
WOW. What amazing corruption in Russia. Not sure the author was all that squeaky cleaning in his Russian money making. The path from a communist country to democracy has led to a lot of bad stuff in the money world in Russia.
May 18, 2023
I had never read a book like this before. Was on the edge of my seat the whole time over investment banking. Wtf. Bill Browder is beast mode. Spent 4-6 hours googling all about this story after finishing the book. Wowza.
October 27, 2017
A must read for everyone. A non-fiction page turner. Bill Browder is my new hero.
September 19, 2018
What have we learned from this book thAt we already don't know?
April 28, 2019
Everyone should read this book to understand what Russia under really is. He is a real threat to democracy in the world.
July 14, 2020
a little tedious at times but timely and interesting
February 4, 2021
I read the book not summary and it’s amazing!
August 25, 2021
At times difficult to read with all the names of lawyers, journalists etc. A fascinating story though. Provides great insight into Russian and American politics.
December 31, 2021
Amazing. Terrifying, exciting and honest.
January 18, 2022
Unbelievable book. All the suspense needed to keep a reader up all night, yet its a true story lived out by the author on a day to day basis. A definite must read.
January 16, 2023
The first half was super fun!
May 11, 2017
a real page turner, finished in a matter of a few days simply could not put down . this story has no ending right know there is on going investigation of money laundering that apparently could be a fallout from companies that Browder had investment involvement. http://bit.ly/2qSN58q
December 7, 2016
For what it’s worth I have a much better grasp on the state of the Russian economy and policies post fall of the Soviet Union, how companies were broken up and lands dispersed. Bowder happened to be in the right place at the right time and later in the wrong place at a time when he should have taken his chips and walked out. Surprise! the Russians caught up with those siphoning the countries largest assets and naturally took an issue with it. Ok - how he exploited and made his millions was by the book but could Bowder really be that surprised when the Russians decided to rewrite the rules to include espionage, evasion and the good old threat of violence? It’s difficult for me to feel sorry for the guy, in fact at points throughout this unquestionably thrilling novel I wanted to grab him out of the pages and exclaim, “You’re putting other people’s lives in jeopardy you clown!”
Alas, it was an intriguing book that brought a tear of empathy for the victims of the innovating Capitalists such as Bowder who would stop at nothing to buy up a starving Russia where now remains the Oligarchs who to this day stand on the backs of the Proletariat to individually thrive as “masters of industry”. At least while Putin allows them to.
Alas, it was an intriguing book that brought a tear of empathy for the victims of the innovating Capitalists such as Bowder who would stop at nothing to buy up a starving Russia where now remains the Oligarchs who to this day stand on the backs of the Proletariat to individually thrive as “masters of industry”. At least while Putin allows them to.
November 30, 2018
An outstanding read. A real page turner. Great insights into the operations of Russia, its combination of despotism and bureaucracy. Also insight into the operation of American government. The chapter Sausages, regarding the passage of the anti-oligarch law by the U.S. congress was at the same alarming, reassuring and fasinating.
The saddest thing about the book show it reveals the missed opportunity when the Soviet Union failed. When state ownership was of all property was discontinued all the nation's wealth was intended to be divided up among it citizens. Unfortunately the oligarchs stole most of it, and attempts at Democratic governance failed. But the last chapter has not been yet written and thorough courageous Russian dissidents and enlightened western foreign and trade policies things might be different in 30 or 40 years.
The saddest thing about the book show it reveals the missed opportunity when the Soviet Union failed. When state ownership was of all property was discontinued all the nation's wealth was intended to be divided up among it citizens. Unfortunately the oligarchs stole most of it, and attempts at Democratic governance failed. But the last chapter has not been yet written and thorough courageous Russian dissidents and enlightened western foreign and trade policies things might be different in 30 or 40 years.
November 12, 2015
Good to great story, bug written in an obnoxious, self-centered, sanctimonious style. A Stanford MBA should be smart enough to know his limitations. Bill Browder knows how to take educated risks, make a lot of money, and even do good things for good reasons. But he does not write well. Had this book been well-written from a neutral perspective by a good author, it would have been worth 4 or 5 stars.
October 24, 2015
fantastic
January 19, 2016
Amazing true story about business, corruption, human rights, integrity, courage, strength ... in Russia
Read
July 17, 2017Wow - what a crazy story! Helps shed some light on the current situation in the world.
September 13, 2017
very thought provoking
June 5, 2015
Gripping read!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews