Interpol dodges a bullet
The international policing organisation Interpol lost its President a few months ago when Meng Hongwei disappeared.
It eventually turned out that he had been arrested and accused of corruption by his native China. I'm told the Chinese government sent Interpol an unsigned letter of resignation on his behalf.
This arrest - and the lack of transparency around it - is worrying to say the least, but in the run p to the election to replace him, which was held this week, things looked even more worrying.
One candidate in the election for a new Interpol president and who was seen as the front-runner, General Alexander Prokopchuk gave particular cause for concern. Prokopchuk is a veteran of the Russian Interior Ministry, and as head of Interpol's Moscow Bureau had been involved in a number of highly dubious attempts tp use Interpol procedures to go after opponents of the Kremlin.
To give an example, earlier this year I described here how Russia had made no fewer than six "noncompliant" (e.g. flagrantly stitched up) attempts to use Interpol procedures to arrest British citizen and Kremlin critic Bill Browder who has been responsible for promoting "Magnitsky act" snactions against Russian oligarchs.
Fotunately Prokupchuk was defeated by a reasonably large margin by Kim Jong Yang from South Korea who had been the acting President since Meng Hongwei disappeared.
In my opinion Interpol dodged a bullet by electing Kim Jong Yang and rejecting Propupchuk. At least one country (Lithuania) had threatened to withdraw from the organisation had the Russian candidate been elected. That view was shared by the Russian opposition who also criticised Prokopchuk's candidacy. Leading Putin critic Alexei Navalny tweeted earlier this week that his supporters had "suffered from abuse of Interpol for political persecution by Russia."
It eventually turned out that he had been arrested and accused of corruption by his native China. I'm told the Chinese government sent Interpol an unsigned letter of resignation on his behalf.
This arrest - and the lack of transparency around it - is worrying to say the least, but in the run p to the election to replace him, which was held this week, things looked even more worrying.
One candidate in the election for a new Interpol president and who was seen as the front-runner, General Alexander Prokopchuk gave particular cause for concern. Prokopchuk is a veteran of the Russian Interior Ministry, and as head of Interpol's Moscow Bureau had been involved in a number of highly dubious attempts tp use Interpol procedures to go after opponents of the Kremlin.
To give an example, earlier this year I described here how Russia had made no fewer than six "noncompliant" (e.g. flagrantly stitched up) attempts to use Interpol procedures to arrest British citizen and Kremlin critic Bill Browder who has been responsible for promoting "Magnitsky act" snactions against Russian oligarchs.
Fotunately Prokupchuk was defeated by a reasonably large margin by Kim Jong Yang from South Korea who had been the acting President since Meng Hongwei disappeared.
In my opinion Interpol dodged a bullet by electing Kim Jong Yang and rejecting Propupchuk. At least one country (Lithuania) had threatened to withdraw from the organisation had the Russian candidate been elected. That view was shared by the Russian opposition who also criticised Prokopchuk's candidacy. Leading Putin critic Alexei Navalny tweeted earlier this week that his supporters had "suffered from abuse of Interpol for political persecution by Russia."
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