Welcome to the 23rd meeting of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Today is April 29, 2014.
Notwithstanding my threats to Mr. Simms that he had to leave the room immediately or face the wrath of the Speaker, we are actually doing the in camera stuff at the end of this meeting, not at the beginning. I offer my apologies in absentia to Scott Simms.
We have today with us William Browder, who is the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management. He is giving us an update on the situation relating to Sergei Magnitsky. You will all recall, of course, from a previous hearing of some time ago, the story of Sergei Magnitsky, which I will not repeat, and the reaction of the Russian government to attempts to seek out justice for Mr. Magnitsky. We're now getting an update on that situation. Anybody who has interest in it can speak to our analyst through our clerk and get the minutes of those earlier proceedings in order to gain any additional contextual information.
That being said, I turn the floor over to you, Mr. Browder. Normally we have a 10-minute opening statement, more or less, but you can do it more quickly or less quickly. In the end, it just affects how much time is available for the questions and answers that will take place in the remaining available time.
Please begin.