Russian appears poised to get Interpol leadership
Kremlin accused of using agency to harass critics
BRUSSELS — Gathered at a glitzy Dubai resort this week for their annual conference, the leaders of Interpol hoped to emerge from the shadow of the controversy that erupted after Beijing snatched the agency’s Chinese president and unilaterally announced his resignation.
Yet, just weeks later, Interpol appears poised to select as its next president a senior security official from Russia, which has been accused of manipulating the agency’s arrest warrants to harass its enemies.
U.S. and European officials were lobbying behind the scenes to tip a vote on Wednesday away from the Russian candidate, Alexander V. Prokopchuk. The virulently anti-Russian Ukranian government went public, declaring that Prokopchuk’s candidacy was part of a Kremlin assault on the international order.
Putin opponent arrested
For years, the Kremlin has used Interpol to demand the arrest of political enemies who have fled to other countries. This spring, William Browder, a critic of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, live-tweeted his arrest in Spain on a warrant issued in Moscow. He was quickly released, but the incident served as a reminder that Interpol’s vaunted systems remain vulnerable to Kremlin influence even after years of pressure from lawyers and rights groups.
Despite its portrayal in spy movies as an omnipotent global police force, Interpol has no powers to investigate crimes or to make arrests. Rather, it serves as a sort of United Nations for police leaders and an information clearinghouse to help local authorities catch international fugitives. The police can ask Interpol to approve international warrants, known as red notices, requesting the detention of fugitives around the world.
For more than a decade, Prokopchuk has served in a department of the Russian Interior Ministry that has flooded Interpol with such requests. Interpol has repeatedly rejected warrant applications that it sees as fabricated or baldly political. Undeterred, Russia has sought more of a different type of warrant, known as a diffusion, which is circulated by Interpol but is not subject to its review.
Browder described Prokopchuk as a “nameless faceless bureaucrat” who takes orders directly from the Kremlin.
“I can’t imagine a more inappropriate person than a person who has been the architect of the abuse doled out to me by Russia at Interpol,” Browder said at a news conference in London on Tuesday. “This is a perfect way for Putin to basically breathe the fear of God into all of his enemies so they know they can’t even escape Russia if one of his guys is at the head of Interpol.”
U.S. and European diplomats are backing Prokopchuk’s chief opponent, Kim Jong-yang of South Korea. American officials said they would not discuss their efforts.
Ronald Noble, who served for more than a decade as Interpol’s executive secretary — the agency’s senior operational position — said that institutional safeguards would prevent any president from politicizing warrants.
“In terms of the day-today operations of Interpol, it will have zero political impact,” he said. “Since Alexander is the only active police officer running for president, his election would prove that delegates were voting for the police professional and not against Russia.”
Award for meddling?
But Jago Russell, the chief executive of Fair Trials International, a rights group based in London, argued in a letter to Interpol this week that countries that meddle with the agency’s systems should not be rewarded with the presidency.
He said that was particularly true after the disappearance last month of Meng Hongwei, whose resignation was announced by Beijing but whose fate has never been explained. Interpol has requested more information from China but has generally declared his disappearance a local matter.
“It is our belief that his presidency and his recent ‘resignation’ have unfortunately undermined the organization’s reputation,” Russell wrote, referring to Meng.
Meng, who was also China’s vice minister of public security, vanished early last month during a visit from France, where Interpol is based. Several days later, the Chinese government produced a brief resignation in his name and said he had been detained on charges of bribery and other crimes. His wife, Grace Meng, has said those charges are politically motivated.