The Central Bank of Russia is looking for terrorists - 30 August, 2002 - News

The Central Bank found terrorists’ allies in Spain, but not in Chechnya

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation is a very serious and requisite institution. Needless to mention that the life in the country would gradually die without it. It is true, but the officials of the major financial institution of the country are often devoted to the traditions of the Soviet bureaucracy.

The UN Security Council passed a very important and timely resolutions for prevention of the world terrorism funding. Really, what’s the point of struggling with terrorists, if anyone can provide the financial nourishment for them? Since the struggle with international terror is the joint objective for Russia and America, the Central Bank of Russia started searching for people and organization, which were suspected of funding terrorist groups. The Bank has published that list, so now Russian bankers know, who to catch.

However, the dubious position of our friends, American imperialists, has played a mean joke for the Central Bank. Americans do not really have the exact wording for an “international terrorist,” which resulted in bad news.

Russian media reported about various operations, which were meant to stop racket activities, both legal and not. Those racket groups transfer money to Chechen gunmen. The Russian police have managed to find the vestiges of international terrorism anywhere. However, it seems that the Central Bank does not care about that.

Central Bank officials are listening spellbound to UN officials. Yet, it deems that the UN believes that Chechen guerrillas are anything but terrorists. That is why there is no Russian firm or a Chechen mob on the list of people and organizations that back up terrorism. However, there are 21 Spaniards on it, one Philippine, the New People’s Part (Philippines), and 74 members of the Taliban movement. It is very curious that the list does not mention either Osama bin Laden or his Al-Qaeda. Central Bank’s friends from New York might not like that.

Furthermore, it turns out that Russian bank laws do not allow to say no to a client, if he or she wishes to open an account in Sberbank, for instance. Both Osama bin Laden and Charles Manson will be welcome. It just so happens that Russian banks cannot freeze suspicious person’s accounts. Therefore, the official list of the Central Bank is virtually a fake.

Apparently, the Central Bank was hoping that the list would be a great help to find terrorists’ deposits. As the newspaper Kommersant informed, the people on the list were not likely to have accounts in Russia. In addition to that, border guards have those lists too, so it is hard to imagine that someone on the list could get into Russia and open an account or two afterwards. As you can see, there is a total mess. This is the struggle with international terrorism.

Igor Vrazhina PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov