1389: Jamison Firestone | A Wild Ride Through Putin's Corrupt Russia

**How did Russia's mafia become its government? Jamison Firestone, a Moscow lawyer who dealt with both, explains how Putin turned the courts into a racket.** **Full show notes and resources can be found here:** jordanharbinger.com/1389 **What We Discuss with Jamison Firestone:** - **How Russia's justice system became a pay-to-play storefront** where a rival could buy the whole package — investigation, arrest, jail, and conviction — with one respected opposition paper later pricing Sergei Magnitsky's arrest at $6 million. - **Why Putin's 2004 takedown of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the turning point**. Once investigators, prosecutors, and judges learned to railroad someone for the state, they realized they could sell the same service to anyone. - **What growing up around his father's crack habit, contract killers, and Manhattan's priciest brothel taught Jamison about handling mobsters**, and how respect, humor, and non-yes-or-no answers helped him fire a Russian protection racket. - **How Magnitsky exposed a $230 million tax fraud, died in custody after being denied medical care, and was then blamed for the very crime he reported**, and how the fight for accountability produced the Magnitsky Act's targeted sanctions. - **What Jamison learned from backing Yeltsin's 1993 assault on his own Congress — a crisis that cost him his best friend — and why guarding democratic institutions over any policy of the moment protects all of us, whichever side we're on.** - And much more... And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here **— even one sentence helps!** - **Sign up for** Six-Minute Networking **— our free networking and relationship development mini course — at** jordanharbinger.com/course**!** - **Subscribe to our once-a-week** *Wee Bit Wiser* **newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom!** - **Do you even Reddit, bro?** Join us at r/JordanHarbinger**!** **This Episode Is Brought To You By** Our Fine Sponsors**:** - **Xero:** One month of Xero for free: xero.com - **Wayfair:** Start renovating: wayfair.com - **Boll & Branch:** 15% off first set of sheets: bollandbranch.com, code JORDAN - **FlyKitt:** 15% off: flykitt.com, code JORDAN See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.