The news of Sergei Magnitsky’s death in Matrosskaya Tishina (a Moscow pretrial detention center) is monstrous. I take it somewhat personally, because I know Jamison Firestone, the head of Firestone Duncan, where Magnitsky worked. As I already wrote, Jamison told me about this case in detail. I remember very clearly how we were sitting in New York and he said he was unsure whether to return to Moscow. That he genuinely feared for his life after he and his colleagues began digging into the theft of 5.4 billion rubles from the state budget. And he cited Magnitsky as an example—someone they had simply taken hostage. I argued with him and said he was exaggerating. Lawlessness, sure, but not to the point where someone should be afraid to travel to Russia. And I didn’t believe his partner was really in danger. They’d mess with him a bit and then let him go. And now 37-year-old Magnitsky dies in pretrial detention under strange circumstances. We need to be absolutely clear about this: it was murder. Whether he was poisoned or died because he was denied medical care is beside the point. He was killed, and killed for his active role in investigating a multibillion-ruble theft carried out by a gang made up of police officers, FSB agents, and tax officials. Anyone interested in the details of the case can watch Browder’s video at the top link. The damage this murder has done to the country has yet to be assessed. But I am certain it will be very substantial. And the fact that from now on not a single normal country will ever, ever extradite a criminal suspect to Russia is among the mildest of the consequences. I would like to hear some kind of response from our modernizer. This is not an ordinary crime. An editorial in "Vedomosti", a front-page story in "Kommersant," and coverage in other newspapers—all of this merits, at the very least, an official comment. Better yet, a statement from the head of state saying he is personally overseeing the investigation. In every time zone.