Will Russia be excluded from FATF black list?

As a result of its work in Moscow, the commission of the FATF (the financial action task force) which arrived in Russia on Monday will give a positive conclusion which will, in turn, help exclude Russia from the black list at the FATF session this October. Vice-Chairman of the Committee of the Russian Federation on Financial Monitoring (KFM) Sergei Osipov voiced this view on Wednesday speaking at the international conference Struggle Against Money Laundering-2002.

For a week the FATF commission will inspect the results of the fulfilment by Russia of the plan of carrying out measures to counter money laundering.

The Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Financial Monitoring of the Russian Federation noted that immense work to fulfil the FATF recommendations had been done in Russia. In particular, the federal law on countering legalisation of incomes received in a criminal way was adopted. An authorised body - the committee on financial monitoring - was established, and it has already been providing information on suspicious financial deals to the law-enforcement bodies.

At the same time, the FATF representatives additionally demanded that the sphere of control by the KFM be extended and that the financing of terrorism be combated, Osipov said. He added that these recommendations had been approved by the State Duma in first reading in June, and on Friday, September 27, will be considered in their second and possibly third reading. Approval of these amendments will make it possible to block suspicious operations and to thereby prevent corresponding crimes, the vice-chairman of the KFM stressed.