Would it be foolish to think that all this William Browder/Hermitage stuff would come to an end with just one murdered lawyer?  Not quite.  This latest story from Catherine Belton in the Financial Times is at once frightening, morally outrageous, and embarrassing – as lawyers in London have received death threats by text messages both before and after the Sergei Magnitsky murder. 

It really does make me wonder who, if anyone, will step up and take control of the situation.  There are clearly a few influential people within the Kremlin who are not crazy, are generally more rational (or at least decent enough to turn their nose up over such an ugly affair), but so far they have been putting up with this unacceptable behavior of the palace circles.  Almost makes me long for the clan wars days back when at least the thieves would fight each other a little more.

A London-based Russian lawyer allegedly received death threats before and after the sudden death in a Moscow jail of Sergei Magnitsky, a colleague who had accused the police of involvement in a corruption case.

The man acts for William Browder, the fund manager barred from Russia, and his company, Hermitage Capital Management, which also employed Magnitsky.