Interpol discreetly eliminated verifications on inquiries originating from Russia, allowing Moscow to autonomously track opposition leaders globally

Documentary evidence has emerged that, since 2025, Interpol’s headquarters no longer reviews requests from Russia for compliance with the organization’s international search rules. Requests from the Russian Federation are now circulated to other countries without being checked at headquarters.

In 2022, following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Interpol publicly announced that it would introduce additional checks on requests from Moscow “to prevent any potential abuse of Interpol channels.” These checks required that all requests from Russia first be submitted to Interpol’s headquarters, where they would be examined, and only then a decision would be made on whether to process the request and circulate it to other countries.

Until 2025, this rule was in effect: many requests were blocked at the headquarters review stage. However, as BBC recently discovered, “some strict measures were quietly canceled.”

Journalists were able to review documents related to the cases of two Russian citizens who believe they are being politically persecuted in Russia. Both were living peacefully in different European countries when they were unexpectedly detained based on requests from Russia submitted through Interpol.

They were able to review the documents, and in both cases, the following note appeared (see video): “The General Secretariat of Interpol did not review the compliance of this notice with the requirements. If you have any doubts regarding its compliance with Interpol rules, please notify us.”

This indicates that Interpol headquarters has stopped checking requests from Russia and now simply forwards them automatically to other countries. These countries are then asked to report any violations in Russian requests to Interpol headquarters.

“In practice, of course, no one requests headquarters to review a submission from Russia. Each country then makes its own decision on how to handle the request,” a source said.

In the case of the two Russians, everything worked out. They were detained in Europe, the situation was clarified, and both are now free. However, how other countries will respond remains a major question.