https://www.justsecurity.org/87260/after-spotlight-on-red-no...
https://www.csce.gov/statements/authoritarian-abuse-interpol...
https://stockholmcf.org/turkey-among-top-abusers-of-interpol...
https://www.reuters.com/world/austrian-ex-intelligence-accus...
It was the worst year for journalist killings in a long time.
Hmm, nope.
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.
Of course, but I'd argue russia trying to break into apartments of journalists and even planning to obduct/kill them is also morally not great
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.
> After Pestrikov had spent almost two years on the wanted list, the CCF ruled that his case was predominantly political. He showed us CCF documents that said the information Russia had provided was "generic and formulaic" and there had been an "inadequate explanation" of the alleged crime. Interpol cancelled the request for Pestrikov's detention.
The way that he is described by the BBC as a businessman (not an oligarch) also suggests that he was taken off the list for political reasons. London collects activist Russian oligarchs the same way Washington collects activist ex-Iranian monarchy.
That paragraph you quoted is "generic and formulaic" and is an "inadequate explanation".
That's a mistake. BBC has perfected the art of omitting relevant information thus creating a completely different story.
My favorite example so far is that after that debacle with Canadian parliament giving standing ovation to a very old Ukrainian who fought against the USSR (and also collaborated with Nazi, as some Canadian Jewish organization was quick to point out), the BBC counteracted "Russian propaganda" by pointing out that almost all Ukrainians fought against Nazis in WW2, completely forgetting to mention the fact that post-2014 regime in Kiev glorifies former Nazi collaborators and demolishes memorials of Soviet generals who fought Nazis.
The most cynical was the renaming of major avenue in Kiev leading to Babiy Yar (the place where thousands of Jews were massacred) to honor Bandera and the renaming of the avenue that used to honor Nikolai Vatutin[0], Soviet general who fought Nazis on the territory of Ukraine, after Shukhevych[1], another Nazi collaborator and mass murderer.
It's a "You have these two parties, with different stories, who do you trust more?" and in this case, easily BBC, even though they, like any media organization, commit mistakes sometimes.
And again, I don't trust what BBC claims without thinking about it myself, just like I won't take what CNN says at face value. But context matters.
The Bill Browder case was clear abuse. In case anyone is looking for a single precedent of this.
[0] - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/mark-carn...
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 for 20+ years fine with whatever financial crimes this guy had been committing as long as he played ball (and like many there continue to commit while staying loyal to the regime), and is really using these crimes to get him now for political motives. (and, yes, looking at current Russian opposition you can find a bunch of guys who is rich and most probably made their money in Russia not in completely legal way, and i honestly don't have respect for them, yet it is clear that the regime is going after them purely for their opposition)
>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"
Even if so, it does not contradict the idea that his actions may have been unlawful and thus can be punished according to crimial law.
What "criminal law" you're referring to? If Russian - then not really. Uniformity of law application and enforcement is that makes law legitimate. Using the law as political prosecution tool clearly undermines the legitimacy of the law, at least when it used in such a way (and Interpol clearly responds to Russia in those requests that Interpol doesn't take part in political prosecution).
Right now Russia has no legitimate laws. Even killers and rapers are getting pardoned after signing up for war for just 6 or 18 months. Some of them have already returned, killed and raped again. The financial and economic crimes laws are used only when government people want to punish somebody for either political reasons or for not paying [enough] bribes.
That again isn't the judgement on this guy's crimes. If he say stole from somebody, and that somebody can bring a suit and prove it in say an Europe or US court - i'm all for that.
But in Russia, this is on a completely another level. Especially if you started the business in the 90s, there is no way they couldn't dig up any dirt on you.
China and the cultural revolution was similar, and Chinese courts are similarly ‘what the party wants’.
We’ll see what US courts end up looking like at the end of this decade.
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...
> The data is not complete…
a good example is the BTCe crypto exchange founder
Make of it what you will, but if you want to read up on (willingly and consciously) unlawful behavior at the Dutch Tax Authority in general, I welcome you to investigate the "Toeslagenaffaire" of the past few years. Even today an article came out which shows a WOO (FOIA) request that has them admit more illegal acts, on top of everything else they did. Luckily most people will focus on reading about the new government which will be announced today. Or speak to any of the few criminal tax attorneys in NL.
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
Such services are frequently advertised on forums like rutor
https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Notices/Red-Notices/...
> 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.