Not denying that Russia abuses Interpol, but I have doubts about this particular narrative that he was some kind of "government critic." From what I can find, he privatized a state corporation in the 90s for pennies (lots of very shady deals back then, usually facilitated by organized crime). From 2010-2020, I can find media reports about his legal problems with tax evasion. In 2021, there was a case where he threatened people with murder while holding a rifle. He was perfectly fine living in Putin's Russia until 2022, when he took 250 mln from the company's budget without consulting the board of directors and left Russia (and prosecutors also found that the privatization in the 90s was illegal). I suspect he's part of the 90s mafia who's now on the Interpol list, which makes his life abroad questionable, so now he has to spin the narrative that it's a political case.
And yet despite his alleged criminal activities Russian prosecutors have failed to present an evidence-backed case that would warrant the notice to Interpol. That is why it was cleared.
The point here isn't whether this guy clean or not. The point is that you can't trust allegations made by Russia. Any allegations made by Russia are what is called "fruit of the poisoned tree".
And just for example, Navalny was put in prison for alleged and proven in a so called "Russian court of law" financial/commercial crimes.
>He was perfectly fine living in Putin's Russia until 2022
That suggests that Russia was fine with whatever financial crimes this guy committed, and is really using these crimes to get him now for political motives.
>and prosecutors also found that the privatization in the 90s was illegal
there has been whole wave of such findings recently (and Supreme Court specifically removed statute of limitations here). As result the privatization is usually nullified, the property gets confiscated by the government, and later it ends up in the hands of Putin's friends, family, loyalists. It is a huge redistribution of assets under the guise of "Russian law"
I’ll just assume this is correct because I believe the Russian government has mastered the art of just lying when there are no consequences, but if I was being critical, this phrase is giving me pause for evaluating the conclusions.
I'm grateful to Russia for standing by its principles and asserting its sovereignty. I can barely imagine how bad the world would be right now if Russia had gone along with the unipolar world order. Russia is just showing us how ridiculous this whole global system is.
A global system which relies on perfect consensus between all countries and a fixed power hierarchy is a terrible idea. How Russia has been weaponizing Interpol is how the US and vassal states have been weaponizing pretty much every other institution over the past few decades. Now the uni-polar globalists are getting a taste of their own medicine. Learning what it feels like when a great power is working against you.
Currently in my country (Austria) there is a court process against an official who made register look-ups of critical journalists who live here and handed the address to FSB-Agents who later broke into this journalists apartment. The ruzzians are completely unscrupulous.
Wait a sec, isn't the Austrian intelligence officer to blame here for doing the spying on Russia's behalf?
And Austrian politics in general have historically been very pro-Russia since the cold war, with Putin visiting the wedding of Austrian officials, and Austrian politicians getting jobs at Russian oil and gas companies after the end of their mandates. Also, Austrian Raiffeisen bank still has operations in Russia.
So maybe Austria could have some introspection and drain the swamp of Russian assets instead of throwing all the blame on Russia as it has no agency in its internal politics and business tie with Russia.
Became used in some circles due to russians using the symbol "Z" for their new great patriotic war. It can be seen as an attempt not to lump all russians together, but instead to distinguish the pro-war group (which, if you like limits, tends toward 1).
You can pay $500 online in cryptocurrency to find out if there are interpol notices regarding a person. It's a convenient feature of interpol being so... international.
Such services are frequently advertised on forums like rutor
> The majority of Red Notices are restricted to law enforcement use only.
> Extracts of Red Notices are published at the request of the member country concerned and where the public’s help may be needed to locate an individual or if the individual may pose a threat to public safety.
Brazil's judicial dictatorship has been doing the same, sadly.
Not denying that Russia abuses Interpol, but I have doubts about this particular narrative that he was some kind of "government critic." From what I can find, he privatized a state corporation in the 90s for pennies (lots of very shady deals back then, usually facilitated by organized crime). From 2010-2020, I can find media reports about his legal problems with tax evasion. In 2021, there was a case where he threatened people with murder while holding a rifle. He was perfectly fine living in Putin's Russia until 2022, when he took 250 mln from the company's budget without consulting the board of directors and left Russia (and prosecutors also found that the privatization in the 90s was illegal). I suspect he's part of the 90s mafia who's now on the Interpol list, which makes his life abroad questionable, so now he has to spin the narrative that it's a political case.
And yet despite his alleged criminal activities Russian prosecutors have failed to present an evidence-backed case that would warrant the notice to Interpol. That is why it was cleared.
By he you mean Igor Pestrikov?
I suppose our own politicians are so corrupt they see nothing wrong with such behavior and automatically consider such case as abusive.
The point here isn't whether this guy clean or not. The point is that you can't trust allegations made by Russia. Any allegations made by Russia are what is called "fruit of the poisoned tree".
And just for example, Navalny was put in prison for alleged and proven in a so called "Russian court of law" financial/commercial crimes.
>He was perfectly fine living in Putin's Russia until 2022
That suggests that Russia was fine with whatever financial crimes this guy committed, and is really using these crimes to get him now for political motives.
>and prosecutors also found that the privatization in the 90s was illegal
there has been whole wave of such findings recently (and Supreme Court specifically removed statute of limitations here). As result the privatization is usually nullified, the property gets confiscated by the government, and later it ends up in the hands of Putin's friends, family, loyalists. It is a huge redistribution of assets under the guise of "Russian law"
Yeah, the UK has a habit of giving a new home to Russian oligarchs.
There are several in my area of London who live in opulent mansions (one looks very Trump-like) bought with soviet privatization wealth.
Some of their houses: https://www.mylondon.news/news/property/london-mansions-owne...
another thing they do, when one of their agents/criminal affiliates is arrested, they invent a serious crime he did in Russia and demand extradition
a good example is the BTCe crypto exchange founder
I knew Carmen Sandiego was framed!
I’ll just assume this is correct because I believe the Russian government has mastered the art of just lying when there are no consequences, but if I was being critical, this phrase is giving me pause for evaluating the conclusions.
> The data is not complete…
I'm grateful to Russia for standing by its principles and asserting its sovereignty. I can barely imagine how bad the world would be right now if Russia had gone along with the unipolar world order. Russia is just showing us how ridiculous this whole global system is.
A global system which relies on perfect consensus between all countries and a fixed power hierarchy is a terrible idea. How Russia has been weaponizing Interpol is how the US and vassal states have been weaponizing pretty much every other institution over the past few decades. Now the uni-polar globalists are getting a taste of their own medicine. Learning what it feels like when a great power is working against you.
If multipolarity involves great powers sabotaging shared interests when convenient, how is it any different from the unipolar abuse being criticised?
The difference is that opposition brings balance. Any great power, unopposed, is bound to turn into tyranny sooner or later.
Currently in my country (Austria) there is a court process against an official who made register look-ups of critical journalists who live here and handed the address to FSB-Agents who later broke into this journalists apartment. The ruzzians are completely unscrupulous.
https://www.reuters.com/world/austrian-ex-intelligence-accus...
> The ruzzians are completely unscrupulous.
Wait a sec, isn't the Austrian intelligence officer to blame here for doing the spying on Russia's behalf?
And Austrian politics in general have historically been very pro-Russia since the cold war, with Putin visiting the wedding of Austrian officials, and Austrian politicians getting jobs at Russian oil and gas companies after the end of their mandates. Also, Austrian Raiffeisen bank still has operations in Russia.
So maybe Austria could have some introspection and drain the swamp of Russian assets instead of throwing all the blame on Russia as it has no agency in its internal politics and business tie with Russia.
Do we believe some countries' spy agencies are scrupulous?
In which language is "ruzzians" a valid spelling?
Became used in some circles due to russians using the symbol "Z" for their new great patriotic war. It can be seen as an attempt not to lump all russians together, but instead to distinguish the pro-war group (which, if you like limits, tends toward 1).
In a Cold Warrior language. Very often found in Southern US states (rednecks).
> Pestrikov found he was named in a red diffusion after he fled Russia in June 2022
It doesn't say how he found out, I would imagine he's regularly checking online, he was stopped at a control check somewhere?
Seems to me that most people wouldn't have a clue until they're being arrested. But again another scummy behaviour from the Russian government.
It might as well just be prudent to ignore their requests altogether. Boy who cried wolf.
Edit : it did indeed say how. I missed it.
> After he fled to France, he was worried that the Kremlin might try to target him there, so he contacted Interpol
You can pay $500 online in cryptocurrency to find out if there are interpol notices regarding a person. It's a convenient feature of interpol being so... international.
Such services are frequently advertised on forums like rutor
Well Interpol will tell you directly so no need to fund criminal groups.
https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Notices/Red-Notices/...
> The majority of Red Notices are restricted to law enforcement use only.
> Extracts of Red Notices are published at the request of the member country concerned and where the public’s help may be needed to locate an individual or if the individual may pose a threat to public safety.
So, no, only a minority of them are made public.
Ah I see, still is no excuse to find crime, only adding to your potential problems really.
Besides, you'd probably want to know about a blue notice.