The nomination of a Russian police general to head the INTERPOL raises a protest campaigns while Moscow denunciate describing it as an unacceptable politicization… Washington announces its support for the South Korean candidate

The appointment of a Russian police general to head the INTERPOL sparked an opposition campaign against Moscow, who met these campaigns with condemnation as it call it an “unacceptable politicization” on Tuesday on the eve of the election of a new director of the international  police organization, which Russia has consistently accused of using against its political opponents.

The INTERPOL position has been vacant since the sudden “resignation” of its former director, the Chinese Meng Hongwei, who been accused of corruption by China, where he mysteriously disappeared during a visit in early October.

INTERPOL delegates, who hold a general assembly since Sunday in Dubai, must elect a successor among candidates, current acting director South Korean President Kim Jong-yang and a senior Russian interior ministry official, Alexander Prokopchuk.

The Sunday Times quoted British sources as saying that Prokopchuk, 56, was likely to win.

Although the post of president remains ceremonial but does not include the organization’s operations, this information has angered critics of the Kremlin who fear that the international police will become a tool in Moscow’s service.

The case comes at a time when Westerners accuse Moscow of sending troops to Ukraine, intervening in the US elections and poisoning former client Sergey Scrippal in Britain.

For his part, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that the United States “resolutely supports” South Korean candidate to head the Interpol, at a time of heated debate over the Russian candidate to head the organization.

“We firmly support Kim Jongyang, acting president”, Pompeo told reporters.

“We encourage all INTERPOL member states and member organizations that respect the rule of law to choose a leader with integrity.

We believe that Kim will be quite so”.

Four members of the US Senate, in an open letter published Monday by representatives of the 192 countries in Interpol, called for the refusal of Prokopchuk’s candidacy.

One of the most vocal opponents of the British-funded candidate, William Broder, who has been trying to obtain extradition for years, was briefly arrested this year in Spain pursuant to an Interpol arrest warrant.

Proder says Russia has tried “six times to exploit INTERPOL” in an attempt to arrest him at a time when he is working to impose sanctions on those responsible for the murder of his former lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian prison in 2009 after revealing the involvement of several senior Russian officials in the theft of huge amounts of money Tax from several companies.

He warned on Twitter that Russia would “extend its criminal claws to every corner of the world” if Prokopchuk was elected president of the organization based in Lyon, France.

On Tuesday he announced with Russian exiled opposition Mikhail Khodorkovsky of London his intention to sue for “suspension” of Russia’s membership in Interpol.

“I am seriously afraid that Prokopchuk will be elected president of INTERPOL because, by order of the Kremlin, he will be ready to do anything”, Khodorkovsky said.

“Our team has suffered from Interpol’s excesses because of Russian political persecution”, wrote Kremlin opponents Alexei Navaleni on Twitter.

“I do not think the president of Russia will help to reduce these violations”.

Ukraine and Lithuania have threatened to withdraw from INTERPOL if Prokopchuk is elected.

The US State Department, without naming the Russian candidate directly, pointed out “the need to elect a person who will promote the values ​​and practices that make INTERPOL an international organization that is also vital and does not disturb it”.

According to Prokopchuk’s profile, he joined the ministry in the 1990s and was promoted in 2003 to the rank of general in the police and began working with INTERPOL in 2006, initially as an assistant to the Russian office in the organization.

Prokoptchuk, who speaks German, Polish, Italian, English and French, has also cooperated with the European police, Europol, before being appointed to the INTERPOL Executive Committee in 2014 and then elected Vice-Chairman of the Commission in November 2016.

The candidate who wins the post will complete the Ming mandate, which is supposed to end in 2020, but the actual chairman of INTERPOL is in fact its Secretary-General.

He is now until next year German Jürgen Stuck, who recalled in early November that the post of President is “Mainly honorary”.

“The head of INTERPOL has a certain influence, but it is not a key position”, said Andrei Soldatov, editor of the Russian intelligence agency agentura.ru.

But the expert nevertheless expressed his conviction that the use of “red communications” in the color of arrest warrants issued by member states for political prosecutions would “increase” if Bukoptschuk was elected.

“INTERPOL is a system that Russia has been using skillfully to serve its objectives.

This raises problems (for people with arrest warrants), they are stopped at the border and they waste a few days, this is annoying and has negative repercussions”.

INTERPOL has faced several controversial heads of state since it’s founding nearly 100 years ago, and Ming’s election in 2016 has raised concerns among opponents that Beijing is using Interpol to hunt down dissidents abroad.