The head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, discussed cooperation issues with the President of Interpol

Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin, at a meeting with the President of Interpol, Deputy Minister of Public Security of the People's Republic of China Meng Hongwei, discussed issues of interaction between departments in the field of international search, as well as the participation of Russian security forces in this work. A brief report on the meeting was published on the official website of the RF IC.

“Representatives of the two departments met to discuss current issues of bilateral cooperation between the Investigative Committee of Russia and the International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol,” said the official representative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Svetlana Petrenko.

According to her, the key issues at the meeting were issues related to a set of measures aimed at increasing the efficiency of international search.

“Agreements were reached to strengthen further cooperation, including in terms of the international search for persons involved in criminal cases investigated by the Investigative Committee, as well as to continue the participation of representatives of the Russian Investigative Committee in expert events carried out through Interpol,” Petrenko said.

The Chairman of the RF IC noted “the committee’s interest in full participation in the work carried out by Interpol on the anti-crime track.” Bastrykin also expressed hope that his subordinates “will be able to make a significant contribution to this activity, which is important in all aspects,” Interfax reports.

“Meng Hongwei thanked the Chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee for the warm welcome, expressing his readiness for open dialogue and assistance to the Russian law enforcement system in resolving the most important issues of combating crime,” concluded Svetlana Petrenko.

Let us add that the Chinese delegation that participated in the negotiations with Bastrykin included the head of the General Directorate of the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China Xia Xin, a political analyst of the Interpol Presidential Office Kwok Ka Chun, and the official representative of the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China in Russia Zhu Ronghui.

On Thursday it became known that Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika also held negotiations with the head of Interpol. He complained about the lack of transparency in Interpol’s decision-making process to refuse to search for the accused.

Perhaps the main headache of Yuri Chaika is the British financier William Browder, who has already been sentenced in absentia twice in Russia - to nine years in 2013 in a case of financial fraud and tax evasion, and also to nine years in 2017 in a case about tax evasion. The investor was also put on the international wanted list, but Interpol several times rejected Russia's requests to arrest Browder, believing that they "are primarily of a political nature."

In mid-June, the Russian Prosecutor General, commenting on yet another failed detention of Browder in Madrid, assured that Russia would not allow the financier to “sleep peacefully.”

In response, the British Parliament proposed expelling Russia from Interpol .

“We believe that Interpol should be out of politics, they should do what they should do - this is the search for a criminal. Browder is a criminal, obviously for everyone, we already have a sentence that has entered into legal force in the Russian Federation,” - Chaika said then.

Moreover, in December last year, after a visit to Interpol headquarters in Lyon in connection with the charges that the French Ministry of Justice brought against the Russian senator Suleiman Kerimov, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation called arrests abroad of people with a status of Kerimov’s level unacceptable.

“In my opinion, this is wrong. There must be some mechanisms, restraining factors, since he represents the interests of a large group of the population, he is a senator, an elected person,” said Yuri Chaika.