MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th July, 2023) More than 8,600 defendants in criminal cases from Russia are on the wanted list, including the international one, but Interpol has been blocking requests for their search for political reasons, Russian Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin told Sputnik.
"Interpol is closely monitoring all our requests for an international search. Some sort of revision of all the defendants previously put on the international wanted list by Russia is also being carried out. This is done to identify, in their opinion, an alleged political component in Russian requests to block the use of Interpol channels in individual cases, as well as to further discredit Russian law enforcement agencies on the organization's platforms and accuse (them) of abusing international channels to search for people," Bastrykin said.
Interpol demonstrates its adherence to the Western narrative by such actions and thereby undermines the neutrality it declares, the Russian chief investigator added.
"In criminal cases, the Russian Investigative Committee put on the wanted list 1,722 accused and suspected people in the first half of 2023 (3,002 people for the whole of 2022), 1,310 were found (2,763 for the whole of 2022), more than 100 of them were hiding for 10 or more years for committing violent crimes. More than 8,600 persons remain on the wanted list as of the beginning of the month," Bastrykin said.
The Russian Investigative Committee head also said that despite the above mentioned difficulties, interaction with foreign agencies through Interpol channels still continued and the exchange of operational information was ongoing on regular basis. The foreign authorities still fulfill Russia's requests, locate criminals and detain them, he said, adding that such cooperation existed with Turkey, Sweden, Georgia, Egypt and some other countries.
Interpol, officially known as the International Criminal Police Organization, is a France-based international organization that facilitates police cooperation and crime control across the globe. It has national bureaus in all 195 member states.
