"Since the start of the year, 29 people have been extradited and deported to Russia from foreign and former Soviet countries. We hope that last year's extradition number will be exceeded," Police Major General Timur Lakhonin told a RIA Novosti press conference.
Lakhonin said 46 wanted suspects were extradited to Russia with the assistance of Interpol Russia in 2007. He said about 100 suspects were currently "in the process of being extradited."
The Interpol Russia chief also said the number of countries cooperating in extradition requests is constantly increasing, adding that Iraq, Ecuador, Canada and Israel participated for the first time in 2008.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said in April that Alexander Levin, accused of murdering a couple in west Russia in 2001, had been extradited to Russia from Israel.
Israel "has for the first time for a long period agreed to the extradition request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office," Russian prosecutors said then, describing the event as a step toward future successful cooperation between the two countries' law enforcement agencies.
In March Iraqi authorities said an Armenian national wanted in Russia on murder charges would be extradited. Interpol Russia said then that the extradition would be the first from Iraq in the history of Russia's 17-year Interpol membership.
Lakhonin also said 43,000 cars stolen in Russia were put on an Interpol wanted list in 2007, compared to 38,000 in 2006. He said 600 cars stolen in other countries had been traced in Russia, adding that in total, Interpol has about 3 million stolen cars listed.
The major general said Russia was involved in the search, in cooperation with Interpol, for 1,205 people. "They are wanted... for terrorism, fraud and theft," he said.
