A bill providing for the establishment of a financial intelligence service in Russia to be prepared at the beginning of 2001

A bill providing for the establishment of a financial intelligence service in Russia may be prepared in the 1st quarter of 2001, Russia's tax police head Vyacheslav Soltaganov was quoted as saying today. The Tax Ministry and the Federal Tax Police Service are currently forming a workgroup to draft the first variant of such bill. Soltaganov explained that tax police does not pursue the aim to take the financial intelligence service under its umbrella, RBC announces. He believes that this new law enforcement body is most likely to become a department of the Finance Ministry. The tax police chief stressed that such special services had been established in a lot of developed countries a long time ago. The powers of Russia's financial intelligence service will not overlap with those of tax police. However, the financial intelligence service will get access to financial and banking secrets and will be able to question citizens, prepare analytical reports and forward them other Russia's law enforcement bodies. Soltaganov stressed that the financial intelligence service would show interest only in "controversial financial operations" connected with laundering money.