Drew Angerer
Bill Browder, the former fund manager and prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was briefly arrested in Spain under a Russian arrest warrant Wednesday. In two tweets Wednesday morning, Browder said: "Urgent: just was arrested by Spanish police in Madrid on a Russian Interpol arrest warrant," and, “In the back of the Spanish police car going to the station... they won’t tell me which station.” Spanish police reportedly freed him after an hour in custody—he was released because the warrant was no longer valid. Browder has led an influential campaign to sanction Putin and his allies. The U.S. Magnitsky Act is named after Browder’s Russian lawyer and friend Sergei Magnitsky, who died in Russian police custody in 2009 after being arrested on trumped-up charges.