RUSSIAN MAJ.-GEN. ALEXANDER PROKOPCHUK, WHO HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF PUSHING A PRO-PUTIN AGENDA, IS EXPECTED TO BE NAMED THE HEAD OF INTERPOL.
Had pushed warrants against Putin opponents
• A top Russian official accused of using Interpol to promote the interests of the Kremlin is expected to be elected president of that international law enforcement agency on Wednesday. Canada stopped short of criticizing Alexander Prokopchuk’s candidacy but is watching deliberations at the 192-country police co-ordinating body “very closely,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said during an Ottawa press conference on Tuesday.
Critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin say Prokopchuk’s election could damage the institution and further politicize international police co-operation. The United States has publicly endorsed a different candidate from South Korea, Kim Jong Yang, the interim president. The presidency is mostly a ceremonial role, but is nonetheless seen as an important oversight position. “Canada, of course, is very aware of the ways in which Russia as a country has acted in clear and flagrant violation of international law,” Freeland said. Canada contributed about $2.5 million to Interpol’s budget in 2017. It puts up a similar amount every year. Brenda Lucki, the commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is representing Canada at Interpol’s general meeting in Dubai this week, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said. “It’s our very strong view that the agency should never be used in an abusive way, and that the abuses need to be resisted,” said Goodale. Prokopchuk, as head of Russia’s Interpol branch for seven years, was responsible for issuing myriad “red notices,” or international arrest warrants, against prominent opponents of Putin.
One of the notices was for Bill Browder, an American who runs an investment firm that was previously based in Moscow. He has spearheaded international efforts to levy targeted sanctions against foreign human rights abusers under Sergei Magnitsky laws, named after his lawyer, a specialist in anti-corruption who suspiciously died in a Moscow prison in 2009. Canada adopted a Magnitsky Act last year.
The National Post reached Browder in the United Kingdom on Tuesday. He said he hoped Canada would vote against Prokopchuk, but if the candidacy was successful, Canada should also help develop safeguards to prevent the institution from being co-opted. “Canada should be egging on and cajoling all of its allies around the world to do the same,” he said. Asked to react to Canada’s wait-and-see position — and the fact ministers didn’t specifically mention the Russian candidacy — he said after a long pause, “That’s not very helpful.”