Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse has joined a chorus of voices calling for the expulsion of Russia from one of the world’s largest law enforcement organizations.
Sasse filed a letter on Monday calling for Interpol to suspend Russia’s access to its databases. Several law enforcement officials have advocated the move, including Attorney General Merrick Garland and the United States’s “Five Eyes” partners. However, the agency has declined to do so over a notion of neutrality and has instead decided to implement “heightened supervision and monitoring measures in relation to Russia.”
This is a “small step in the right direction,” Sasse said in a letter to Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken that was viewed by National Review. Still, it is not enough to “protect Interpol against potential abuses by the Russian government or to ensure that Russia does not exploit Interpol’s intelligence-sharing function to further harm the people of Ukraine.”
Interpol, which helps facilitate cooperation between police organizations across borders, has been used to help suppress and stifle political opponents internally, according to Sasse. Russian President Vladimir Putin has abused Interpol’s tools by using them to investigate rivals and critics in the past. Putin critic Bill Browder had the agency used against him at least six times as of 2018.
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Sasse claimed that “removing Russia from Interpol should be a top priority” and presented Blinken and Garland with a series of questions on the matter, including whether the Biden administration was working with other Five Eyes members to expel Russia and what steps the U.S. law enforcement agencies are taking to “substantiate the security and safety concerns that Russia poses by its participation in Interpol.”
Garland and several leaders of other nations’ law enforcement agencies advocated Russia’s removal from Interpol on March 7, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
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As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, relations with Russia have continued to escalate. On Monday, Putin threatened the CIA over an attempt by the Kremlin to claim that the intelligence organization had tried to assassinate senior Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov.
