British financier Bill Browder, who lobbied for sanctions in 2012 against Moscow after the death of his Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in prison, said Thursday that President Donald Trump allowing the Kremlin to question him was "effectively a death sentence for me."
"What the Russians have said very clearly on a number of occasions is that they would like to get me back to Russia, they would like to send me back to Russia," Browder, the head of Hermitage Capital Management, told Kate Bolduan on CNN.
"Once I'm back in Russia, they would like to kill me," he added. "So, anything that begins that process is effectively a death sentence for me."
At their summit Monday in Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that he would allow special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors to question Kremlin operatives charged with meddling in the 2016 election in exchange for Moscow being able to query Browder and others considered "fugitives."
Trump called the suggestion an "interesting idea" while standing next to Putin at their news conference.
"It was one of the most insane things I've ever heard coming out of his mouth," Browder told Bolduan. "Basically, he wants to hand over me and … others who have been foot soldiers in fighting against Russian corruption and investigating Russian organized crime in the United States.
"Effectively, what President Trump was saying is that he wants to take a bunch of loyal patriots, people who have given up money for government service to serve their nation, who have been protecting that this nation against Russian interference, Russian organized crime, and he wants to hand them over to the Russian criminals.
"That has to be the most insane, crazy thing I've ever heard."