Russia loses Interpol presidency vote
Source: BBC & AP
Link to tweet
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Interpol has elected South Korean Kim Jong-yang as its president, rejecting the Russian frontrunner who had been accused of abusing the international police body's arrest warrant system.
Mr Kim was chosen by Interpol's 194 member states at a meeting of its annual congress in Dubai.
He beat Russia's Alexander Prokopchuk, who had been widely tipped to win.
But there was growing concern that Mr Prokopchuk would use the role to target critics of Russia's President Putin.
Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-46286959
Bill Browder must be celebrating
And Putin is sorely pissed
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)F' YOU VLAD!
eShirl
(18,494 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)empedocles
(15,751 posts)Phoenix61
(17,006 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)PatSeg
(47,475 posts)watoos
(7,142 posts)Especially in Georgia or Florida.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)duforsure
(11,885 posts)Like Putin, Trump, McConnell's , and many other very corrupt republican politicians in our government, and their donors, and russian spies.
SallyHemmings
(1,822 posts)Qutzupalotl
(14,313 posts)Now that plan is done. It seems this story getting out early has changed some minds. Putins getting careless, giving away the scheme like a typical Bond villain.
Link to tweet
malthaussen
(17,200 posts)There's plenty of time to freak out after something actually happens.
-- Mal
MrGrieves
(315 posts)of course preventative freaking out paired with action might result in the reason for the freak out to not come to fruition.
Grasswire2
(13,570 posts)sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Gothmog
(145,288 posts)LiberalLovinLug
(14,174 posts)After Russia, with approval at the highest levels, systematically cheated doping police during Sochi
After Russia, illegally annexed Crimea and invaded the Ukraine.
After Russia was caught interfering in Germany's and France's election
After Russia was caught interfering with the USA elections?
They are the Russian Mafia, led by a "Don" that has stolen money from his competitors in the billions, murdered journalists, and imprisoned political rivals on 'trumped up' charges.
The idea that Interpol would have been led by a Putin stooge, that we even came close to that, is frightening.
laserhaas
(7,805 posts)Blue Owl
(50,386 posts)n/t
laserhaas
(7,805 posts)I've bern calling him.- Donald the Great - Asshole
Just to piss him off.
But your take - made me chuckle.
Nitram
(22,803 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)But wasnt this vote necessary because his predecessor, a Chinese man, was arrested on returning to China?
Maybe Interpol was embarrassed. And figured it was not a good idea if your head is one act away from having his repressive home country locking him up. Or worse, in Russias case poisoning him in the West.
Control-Z
(15,682 posts)This one had me worried.
chillfactor
(7,576 posts)Glad Putin is pissed!
ck4829
(35,077 posts)dalton99a
(81,513 posts)Interpol officials had been wary of a German takeover as early as 1934, when they passed a pre-emptive resolution effectively banning German citizens from holding the organizations highest role. When German troops marched into Vienna on the morning of March 12, 1938, however, the serving president was promptly arrested and bundled away to a darkened corner of the Reich.
With the Interpol presidency now vacant, SS leader and Heinrich Himmlers second-in-command, Reinhard Heydrich, was eager to take on the role. He was eventually persuaded to make way for Otto Steinhäusl, an Austrian political prisoner whose apparent independence could placate Americas concerns about joining the organization.
But, Steinhäusl passed away in 1940possibly from contracting tuberculosis in prisonand notices were sent to all member states asking them to approve Heydrichs investiture as president. Each was summarily informed that silence would be taken as a vote in favor. The ensuing pseudo-democratic farce allowed Heydrich to claim a unanimous victory, and rubber-stamped Interpols incorporation into the German Reichsicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), the sinister panopticon at the heart of the Nazi vision.
Under Heydrichs command, the Interpol offices were also moved from Vienna to Berlin, into the confiscated home of a Jewish merchant in the leafy suburb of Wannsee. It was in these offices that the infamous Wannsee Conference to decide the fate of European Jewry was originally scheduled to take place, before eventually being relocated to a mansion further down the road. Heydrich was assassinated in 1942, but his successor, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, was also a senior-ranking Nazi official.
Although speculation is rife concerning the extent to which different countries collaborated with Interpol during the war, it is hard to know anything for certain. The little anecdotal evidence that survives, however, is chilling enough. For example, we know that soon after the Nazi take-over Interpols official search warrants were altered to include an entry for race alongside one for religion, and that the Commission collaborated with national police forces to arrest anyone offering assistance to Jewish refugees. Furthermore, the United States continued to exchange information with Interpol until just three days before Pearl Harbor, and as late as 1943, the ostensibly neutral Swiss government was still paying its annual subscription.
Following the end of the warand Interpol President Kaltenbrunners execution at Nuremberg on the charge of Crimes against HumanityInterpol turned its back on its past and began a slow and shaky journey towards rehabilitation. Rather than being dismissed as a historical footnote, however, its wartime activities should be acknowledged as a sobering reminder of the vulnerability of international organizations to political abuse.