Russia using Interpol's wanted list to target critics abroad, leak reveals

Couldn't it be merely a criminal claiming to be a political victim to avoid extradition? Never heard the name here at all, let alone in a political context.

I myself know from close hearsay a fellow who happily traded grain until 2022 when he left for US with $50m of a bank's money in his pocket. A few people in the bank lost their jobs as a result. Those people would certainly welcome that critic back.

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.

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

The Dutch Tax Authority also does this.

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…

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...

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> 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

Brazil's judicial dictatorship has been doing the same, sadly.