Washington: On Wednesday delegates of the general assembly of Interpol - the International Criminal Police Organisation, the coordinating body for law enforcement from 192 countries - will meet in Dubai for the last day of their 87th annual session.

Their most important agenda item: elect the organisation's new president to replace Meng Hongwei, who went missing in China in October. (The Chinese authorities later announced that Meng had been arrested on "corruption charges" and sent what was purported to be his resignation letter to the agency's headquarters in Lyon, France.)

The leading candidate to become the next president of Interpol is Alexander Prokopchuk, a police general in the Russian Interior Ministry who has for the past seven years headed Interpol's Russian bureau. Prokopchuk's candidacy was kept under wraps until the last moment - and, presumably, until the Kremlin was confident of securing enough votes.

The British government has determined that Prokopchuk's victory is assured to the extent that "there is no point in trying to stop him".