Election of Russian as Interpol chief raises concern

Pressure builds on Interpol ahead of vote to choose new chief after detention of China’s Meng Hongwei. Alexander Prokopchuk, a Russian national, is expected to win the necessary votes to become the new head. INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization…

Pressure builds on Interpol ahead of vote to choose new chief  after the detention of China’s Meng Hongwei. Alexander Prokopchuk, a Russian national, is expected to win the necessary votes to become the new head. 

Background

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 192 member countries. The International Criminal Police Organization facilitates international police cooperation. It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) in 1923.

 To keep INTERPOL as politically neutral as possible, its charter forbids it from undertaking interventions or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial nature or involving itself in disputes over such matters. Its work focuses primarily on public safety and battling transnational crimes. 

In November 2016,  Meng Hongwei, a politician from the People’s Republic of China, was elected president during the 85th Interpol General Assembly, and was to serve in this capacity until 2020. At the end of September 2018, Interpol President Meng Hongwei was reported missing during a trip to China, after being “taken away” for questioning by “discipline authorities”.

On 7 October 2018, the organization announced that Meng had resigned his post with immediate effect and that the Presidency would be temporarily occupied by Interpol Senior Vice-President (Asia) Kim Jong Yang of South Korea.

Analysis
 
Interpol is set to elect a new president on November 21st after China unexpectedly detained Meng Hongwei, a Chinese national who was elected to Interpol’s presidency in 2016. His term was due to end in 2020.

Delegates from the International Police Organization’s 192 member states have gathered in Dubai to attend Interpol’s 87th Annual Session where the election will take place. There are currently two confirmed candidates for the presidency, Alexander Prokopchuk, a veteran of Russia’s interior ministry, and Kim Jong Yang, the South Korean acting head of Interpol. South Africa is reportedly also nominating a candidate.

Pressure has been building on Interpol ahead of a vote with U.S. senators and others warning against the possibility that the top Russian Interior Ministry official might become the agency’s new head.  Reports in the British press indicate that Alexander Prokopchuk, who has served in Russia’s Interior Ministry since 2003 and as Interpol’s Vice-Chair for Europe since 2016, will be elected. 

The presidency of Interpol is vacant because of China’s arrest, detention, and subsequent disappearance of the now-former president, Meng Hongwei, a Chinese secret policeman. Since October, the office has been filled on an interim basis by South Korean official Kim Jong Yang, who is one of the two contenders from which the General Assembly will choose.

The appointment of Prokopchuk would be a huge boon for the Kremlin, which has tried to issue international arrest warrants, also known as ‘red notices’ for Putin’s critics. Russian prosecutors charged British financier Bill Browder, one of Putin’s fiercest critics, with global fraud and tax evasion. Moscow has issued at least six requests to Interpol to arrest and extradite Browder in the past but the agency has routinely ignored those requests. The British-based businessman said at the weekend Mr. Prokopchuk’s candidacy was “absolutely astonishing”. Prokupchuk could reinvigorate these Russian arrest warrants. Mr. Browder is credited with playing a key role in the creation of the Magnitsky Act – a range of sanctions imposed by the US in 2012 on top Russian officials accused of corruption. 

Alexey Navalny, a democracy activist and Mr. Putin’s most prominent domestic opponent, said: “Our team has suffered from abuse of Interpol for political persecution by Russia. I don’t think that a president from Russia will help to reduce such violations.”

Assessment

Our assessment is that it is no secret that Russia does not abide by the Interpol rules with its red notices and diffusions. Interpol rests on the belief or the assumption that its member nations are willing to abide by its rule. We feel that if a majority of them vote to elect Prokopchup, it can only prove that they don’t care about these rules. The move has sparked fear in the mind of Russian exiles and Kremlin critics.