Anti-Russian candidate elected new Interpol chief

Russia’s Alexander Prokopchuk lost election to South Korea’s Kim Jong Yang, who has been elected as the new head of Interpol.

Kim Jong Yang served as acting president of Interpol, while Prokopchuk served as vice president of Interpol.

The elections were held at the 87th Interpol’s General Assembly in Dubai.

Since October, Kim Jong Yang, 57, had served as acting Interpol president after the dismissal of the former chief Meng Hongwei from China. On September 29, Meng was detained in China on corruption charges.

Two main candidates to replace him were Kim Jong Yang and Russia’s Prokopchuk. On Monday, a group of US senators from both parties made public an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump, asking him to influence members of the Interpol General Assembly in order to prevent Russian national Prokopchuk from becoming the new Interpol head.

China said on October 7 that it was investigating former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei over bribery allegations. Interpol said it received his resignation that same day.

The Interpol president is elected for four years by General Assembly.

Russian Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Dzhabarov said that the election of the Interpol’s president offers a vivid example of Washington's interference in elections.

"This is a vivid example of the U.S. interference in elections. Americans do it all the time, everywhere, at any level, in any country and any international organization. It is enough for them to voice their opinion, talk to other countries’ delegations and the result will be what they want it to be," he stressed.

The first deputy chairman added that the position of the Interpol’s president was a technical one so the election of a South Korean candidate would not affect Russia in any way. "The Interpol is just a database collecting information from interior ministries and intelligences services across the world," the senator noted.

According to the Russian senator, extradition requests are usually forwarded to the country which is expected to search for wanted criminals and extradite them. "That is all. Countries can either respond to such requests or show no response. We haven’t faced any harm," TASS cited Dzhabarov as saying.