Investigative Committee: Interpol blocks Russia’s requests for an international wanted list

Over 8.6 thousand defendants in criminal cases under investigation in Russia are on the wanted list, including international ones, but Interpol blocks requests in a number of cases. This was announced on Monday, July 24, by the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin.

The head of the Investigative Committee noted that Interpol closely monitors all Russian requests for organizing an international wanted list, and a kind of audit is being carried out of all the defendants previously declared by the Russian Federation on the international wanted list.

As Bastrykin explained, this is done to identify an allegedly political component in Russian requests in order to block the use of Interpol channels in individual cases. In addition, the goal is to discredit Russian law enforcement agencies at the organization’s sites and accuse them of abusing international channels to search for persons.

After Russia launched a special military operation, the United States proposed to exclude the Russian Federation from Interpol. American congressmen sent a corresponding request to the White House, Justice Department and State Department. A similar request was made to Interpol by British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

However, Interpol decided do not exclude the Russian Federationalthough he announced that now the requests of Russian law enforcement agencies will be considered in a new order.