Bill Browder’s fight against Vladimir Putin has seen him face threats, lawsuits, false accusations of murder and Interpol arrest warrants. A disinformation-laden film was even made about him.

But 16 years after the death of his friend and lawyer Sergei Magnitsky at the hands of Putin’s regime, Browder is unrelenting in his fight for justice. It is an endeavour that, by his estimation, has cost Putin and his cronies billions of dollars already, via asset freezes and sanctions. Hence the considerable risk to his safety.

Browder, who in 2012 succeeded in getting sanctions imposed on Russians involved in Magnitsky’s death, has for several years been trying to convince Europe to divert more than $200bn (£146bn) of Russian assets that were frozen in 2022 towards Ukraine’s defence.

But with progress on those frozen assets stalled because of opposition primarily from Belgium, he has a new focus: refineries in India, China and Turkey. These plants process Russia’s oil, turning it into products such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel, and keep dollars flowing into the Kremlin’s coffers.

Browder reckons the eight refineries are collectively funnelling between $500m and $1bn a day to Russia by buying its crude oil, and is pushing for sanctions to be imposed on their owners.