"At the start of the special military operation and almost until mid-2023, a number of countries made open and public statements calling into question Russia's participation in Interpol. Against this background, Ukraine came up with an initiative to change the organization's charter to create a mechanism to exclude unwanted countries from its membership," Kalachev said.
This initiative was picked up by a number of states, and to date the issue has not been completely removed from the agenda, the official said, adding that discussions and consultations with the participation of Russia continue.
He also noted that in 2022, another large-scale campaign of denigration of Russia in the activities of Interpol was launched in the media, the issue of creating a discriminatory mechanism for excluding countries from the organization was put on the agenda.
"The NCB of Interpol of the Russian Interior Ministry immediately organized with the Russian Prosecutor General's Office the development of counter-initiatives, which, as we see now, did not allow the 'Pandora's box' to be opened, thereby preventing the possibility of calling into question the neutral status of the organization and settling political scores on its platform," Kalachev said.
The consistent development of these initiatives with the involvement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Russian Investigative Committee and other departments allowed the NCB to offer countries an alternative approach to the institution of termination of membership in Interpol, based on maintaining a balance of interests of both the international organization and the states that are members of it, the police major general added.