This blog has carried several posts about the trials and travails of William Browder and Hermitage Capital in Russia, a surprising story about how the largest foreign holder of Russians stock and a highly regarded goodwill ambassador of the government became a victim of state theft, harassment, and even violence. Blogging over at Foreign Policy’s Passport, Blake Hounshell, who has been spending some time at the Salzburg Global Seminar’s session on Russia: The 2020 Perspective, argues that if Medvedev wants to work on improving rule of law and property rights, the Hermitage fiasco is a measure of just how much work he has in front of him.

So, what was going on? Hermitage alleges that “a more sinister agenda” was at work. The real purpose of the Kameya raid was for Moscow Interior Ministry officials to get their hands on documents that could be used to seize the fund’s assets. Here’s how the attempted scam worked.