Possible Russian president of Interpol raises alarm in West
LONDON (AP) — Interpol is facing a pivotal — some say possibly fatal — moment in its history as members decide whether to hand its presidency to a man who represents Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Kremlin critics fear they could soon face arrest wherever they go. Western governments worry that Russia could use the post to undermine the rule of law.
Interpol, which elects a new president Wednesday, has weathered many challenges in its 95 years. While Hollywood has portrayed it as a hive of swashbuckling agents, in reality it’s an organization sometimes tangled in red tape and clashing geopolitical interests. Nazis took it over in the 1930s, and authoritarian governments have long tried to use it to hunt down fugitive dissenters.
But the latest storm of criticism comes at an exceptional time — just as Russia is trying to expand its global clout and as some powerful countries are questioning whether they need multilateral organizations like Interpol at all.
Interpol’s general assembly is choosing the agency’s new president at a meeting in Dubai where the front-runner is Alexander Prokopchuk, a general in Russia’s Interior Ministry who is currently an Interpol vice president. Interpol’s interim president, South Korea’s Kim Jong Yang, is also seeking the post.
Two prominent Kremlin critics warned Tuesday that electing a high-placed Russian would undermine the international law enforcement agency and politicize police cooperation across borders.
Bill Browder, who runs an investment fund that had once operated in Moscow, and oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky told reporters in London that Putin has tried to use Interpol to hunt down critics such as themselves. Having a Russian lead the agency could intensify such efforts to silence dissent, they said.
Activists argue that the organization needs to increase recent efforts at muscular reform, and this won’t happen if Prokopchuk becomes president, because of his ties to Putin.
“It was his government that organized a terrorist attack in the U.K. using chemical weapons in Salisbury. It was his government that shot down MH17, killing 298 innocent individuals. It was his government that cheated and hacked in elections in the United States and Europe,” Browder said of Putin. “To put his representative in charge of the most important international crime-fighting organization is like putting the mafia in charge.”
To Moscow, the complaints are all part of a Western-led campaign to weaken a resurgent Russia.
Russia denies accusations of foreign interference and announced new charges against Browder this week in a long-running legal battle against him. Russian Interior Ministry spokesman Irina Volk accused critics Tuesday of running a “campaign to discredit” Prokopchuk, calling him a respected professional.