50% of Interpol’s work is searching for those who escaped from Russia.
Almost 1.5 million people left Russia after the start of the war, according to estimates from the British Ministry of Defense. Russia, as always, uses Interpol to harass these citizens.
Russia’s Deputy Prosecutor General for Search and Extradition Pyotr Gorodov, a former senior Interpol official, allegedly continues to influence its secretariat in Lyon. This comes amid public allegations that Mr Gorodov and his corrupt associates are suspected of developing a scheme to extort money from citizens who have been flagged by Interpol.
Before the war, Russia was responsible for a staggering 38% of Interpol requests to repress people, and now it is almost 50%. Moreover, less than 2% of the world’s population lives in Russia. By comparison, the US provided 4.3% and China 0.5%.
This is why Putin uses Interpol to crack down on opponents of the war. On 9 March 2022, the European Parliament raised the same issue with the EU Commission in the context of Interpol’s connection to the European Search Portal (ESP)1.
However, the Interpol General Secretariat rejected the request to suspend Russia’s access to Interpol systems, citing the organization’s neutrality and openness to international police cooperation. The statement, dated March 10, 2022, asserted that “Interpol’s mandate does not include imposing sanctions or taking punitive measures, and there is no provision in the Constitution for the suspension or expulsion of a member country.” The statement, however, was just a verbal ploy: the power of the General Secretariat to suspend a member state’s access rights is granted by INTERPOL’s Data Processing Rules, not its Constitution.
Instead of exercising its direct powers in accordance with regulatory rules, the General Secretariat announced some formalities that were de facto a poor imitation of the so-called “enhanced surveillance and monitoring measures regarding Russia.” Unsurprisingly, these cosmetic changes have not stopped—or even slowed down—the flow of politically motivated “Red Notices” and messages issued at the request of Russia. What has changed is the complexity of the procedural manipulations carried out by the Russian national central bureaus. As my legal practice has shown – and contrary to its stated goals – the systematic abuse of international police cooperation by Russian authorities has only worsened. Indeed, of all the public “red notices” in circulation, the current total from Russia – over 46%2 versus 38% pre-war – is a travesty. It cannot constitute “enhanced oversight to prevent any potential misuse of Interpol channels” by Russia.
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