Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The proposal by the UK and Ukraine to suspend Russia or even expel it from Interpol was met with opposition by East and West alike and for good reason: Russia is critical in the fight against transnational crime.
Still, Russian diffusion requests are now first scrutinized by Interpol’s HQ in Lyon, a procedure normally reserved only for Red Notices.
Russia and its allies, like Kazakhstan, are notorious for abusing Interpol and, more generally, international law enforcement cooperation and treaties. They leverage these goodwill instruments to snag dissidents on the run, settle scores with adversaries, or send a chilling signal to would-be opponents and critics. Family members are also targeted, no one is exempt or spared.
Russia and its ilk are not loth to fabricate “evidence”, replete with faked documents and false witnesses (e.g., the Peevski “murder” case in an extradition request filed with Bulgaria in 2014).
The invasion of Ukraine and the assassination attempt of Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition figure, cast Russia’s growing thuggishness and rampant lawlessness in stark relief. The murderous kleptocracy that took over the state is hellbent on egregiously misusing the country’s access to the international system of crimefighting.
Extraditing to Russia anyone who has voiced anti-Kremlin and pro-peace opinions amounts to sending them back into a hellish system of certain torture and, possibly, worse.
In a slew of recent cases in various EU countries and in the UK, extradition was denied citing the following reasons:
- The significant ongoing problem with the independence of the judiciary – both lawyers and judges – in Russia (as per the report by the UN Special Rapporteur);
- Abysmal conditions of detention in the Russian Federation;
- Recurrent and systemic breaches of Articles 3,5,6, and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), article 22 of the UN Convention Against Torture, and Article 3(2) of the European Convention on Extradition: degrading and inhumane treatment in Russian detention centers and prisons and the likely denial of a fair trial;
- Russia does not respect warranties and guarantees that it provides regarding the rights of extra dees and refuses to allow independent monitoring of its adherence to such assurances;
- Russia ignores rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and is no longer a member of the Council of Europe, having been effectively expelled in March 2022, following its aggression against Ukraine.
- Russia announced its intention to denounce the European Convention on Human Rights and to reintroduce the death penalty.
Russia’s botched transition to “capitalism” helped enrich and empower Russian criminals. They formed networks throughout the industrialized, developed West, including in the USA, EU, and UK. Interpol, Europol, and extraditions are foundational tools in the never-ending fight against transnational crime. It is a crying shame that Russia and its allies have tainted these instruments to the point of rendering them dysfunctional.
One possible solution would be the creation of a specialized ad hoc and ad interim body at least for the duration of the war in Ukraine. This institution will comprise representatives from Russia and from the West.
The remit of such an organ would be to review Russian cases before they are transformed into diffusion requests, red notices, or extradition requests.
The seal of approval of such a committee is likely to facilitate the apprehension of real criminals by providing courts outside the Russian Federation with an opinion that is unbiased regarding the merits of cases: prima facie evidence as well as compliance with international treaties (such as the ECHR).
Russia, on its part, should consent to international monitoring of its detention facilities, judicial processes, and police procedures. This is the only way to make sure that it keeps its word when it vows to abstain from political prosecutions, inhumane and degrading treatment, and torture. In due time, hopefully, Russia could reintegrate with the international community and the European family. But, until that time comes, we cannot and should not suspend the war on crime.
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