Kremlin critic Bill Browder says naming a top Russian police official as president of Interpol could undermine the international law enforcement agency.
Browder says President Vladimir Putin has tried to use Interpol to hunt down critics and electing a Russian to lead the agency could intensify such efforts. Browder, who runs an investment fund that had operated in Moscow, has campaigned for sanctions against Russian officials charged with human rights abuses after his former lawyer died in custody.
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Alexander Prokopchuk, a general in the Russian Interior Ministry, is the front-runner to become Interpol’s next president.
Browder told the BBC on Tuesday that Interpol shouldn’t put a Putin subordinate “in charge of the most important law enforcement” institution at a time when Russia is charged with using chemical weapons and hacking elections.
