Russia ready for joint suppression of international terrorism financing

Russia welcomes the increased cooperation with other countries in thwarting financial sources of international terrorism and "dirty money" laundering, said the Russian government's Vice Premier and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin when speaking at the international conference "Problems of Money Laundering" opened in Moscow on Tuesday.

Alexei Kudrin read out Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's address to the conference participants which stressed that Russia was ready to share its experience in cutting off financial sources of international terrorism and combating money laundering.

The Vice Premier also stressed that differences in some countries' definitions of international terrorism and its financing caused certain difficulties for cooperation. Moreover, different countries have different approaches towards determining the term of freezing the accounts of organisations suspected of involvement in international terrorist activities.

Head of the Russian Financial Monitoring Committee Viktor Zubkov, a participant in the international conference, later told journalists, that in the near future Russia's financial intelligence intended to take definite steps towards increasing cooperation with its foreign colleagues. Russia's Financial Monitoring Committee and Foreign Ministry have developed a list of cooperation priorities including 20-25 countries. Russia's financial intelligence will soon sign a cooperation agreement with its Italian counterparts. Moreover, the USA, Baltic States, Slovenia and a number of other states have announced their readiness to sign the documents.