The Russian National Central Bureau for INTERPOL by the Ministry for Internal Affairs has received reports from different parts of the country about certain persons appearing as Interpol officers, a press release from the ministry reads. The impostors use identification documents and badges with INTERPOL’s symbol.
In Murmansk Oblast, these false INTERPOL officers have been operating in towns on the borders with Norway and Finland, the press release reads. Here they have been showing their IDs to local officials and regular citizens. The IDs looked like official INTERPOL IDs, in blue morocco cover with a metal badge shaped as the INTERPOL emblem. The “officers” have used the fake IDs to get personal benefits or get away after having done minor offences like breaking traffic regulations.
Similar reports have come from Moscow, Krasnodar, Tyumen and Astrakhan. The National Central Bureau for INTERPOL has also received information about similar incidents in Russia’s neighboring countries.
Fearing that the number of such incidents could be on the rise, the National Central Bureau for INTERPOL informs that their officers do not use any special identification documents other than the standard police badge that all Russian police officers have.
BarentsObserver has earlier reported that police authorities on both sides of the Norwegian-Russian border are interested in a joint plan on cross-border crime prevention and crime investigation. A cooperation agreement on the issue is signed before summer, Chief of police in Eastern Finnmark police district Håkon Skulstad said.
Cross-border traffic across the Norwegian-Russian border could pick pace if a planned cooperation zone between the two country’s border areas is implemented. The cooperation zone would include facilitated cross-border travel conditions for the people living in the zone.
