This article goes a long way towards explaining the Trump/Russia mess! Some telling quotes from Bill Browder, who was attempting to fight corruption in the Russian stock market; from his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Commitee:
Russia has a well-known reputation for corruption; unfortunately, I discovered that it was far worse than many had thought. While working in Moscow I learned that Russian oligarchs stole from shareholders, which included the fund I advised. Consequently, I had an interest in fighting this endemic corruption, so my firm started doing detailed research on exactly how the oligarchs stole the vast amounts of money that they did.
Hmmm....makes one wonder if Trump has maybe been taking lessons from the Russian oligarchs??
Putin went along with Browder's efforts, until the richest man in Russia was charged with corruption:
That all changed in July 2003, when Putin arrested Russia’s biggest oligarch and richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Putin grabbed Khodorkovsky off his private jet, took him back to Moscow, put him on trial, and allowed television cameras to film Khodorkovsky sitting in a cage right in the middle of the courtroom. That image was extremely powerful, because none of the other oligarchs wanted to be in the same position. After Khodorkovsky’s conviction, the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked him what they needed to do to avoid sitting in the same cage as Khodorkovsky. From what followed, it appeared that Putin’s answer was, “Fifty percent.” He wasn’t saying 50 percent for the Russian government or the presidential administration of Russia, but 50 percent for Vladimir Putin personally. From that moment on, Putin became the biggest oligarch in Russia and the richest man in the world, and my anti-corruption activities would no longer be tolerated.
Browder was stopped at the airport, and deported. Eighteen months later, his Moscow offices were raided by Ministry of the Interior officials.
Browder assigned the smartest lawyer he knew to investigate what was going on. Partway through the investigation, the lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested, and eventually, after prolonged deprivation, beatings and mistreatment, died in prison when denied medical care for gallstones and pancreatitis. Those responsible for his treatment and death have mostly been exonerated by the Russian judicial system.
Read all about it, and weep...
Since then, several others who have tried to get justice for Magnitsky have died or been poisoned, and Browder has frequently received death threats.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ee/534864/
Oh, and the documents seized from Browder's office?
The documents seized by the Interior Ministry were used to fraudulently re-register our Russian investment holding companies to a man named Viktor Markelov, a known criminal convicted of manslaughter. After more digging, Sergei discovered that the stolen companies were used by the perpetrators to misappropriate $230 million of taxes that our companies had paid to the Russian government in the previous year.
Liar!! 
He claimed he'd do 'everything possible' to protect the rights of gays and transgender people!
