Russia freezes some bank accounts due to threat of connection with terrorism

The head of Russia's Financial Monitoring Service said Tuesday that dozens of bank accounts had been frozen for alleged links to terrorists, news agencies reported. Viktor Zubkov said that 109 accounts had been frozen with unspecified banks "from which money may have been taken to finance terrorists," the Interfax agency quoted him as saying.

No further details were given and neither Zubkov nor the agency could be reached late Tuesday, according to the AP.

Earlier, Zubkov announced that several thousand money-laundering investigations had been opened into banks and companies this year.

"We have claims against foreign banks that are based overseas but have correspondent accounts in Russian banks," Zubkov said on Oct. 6. "We are working actively with financial information that seems suspicious."

T.E.