European Commission gives Russia EUR 2.5m to fight money laundering

The European Commission has allocated EUR2.5m to Russia to implement a project for fighting money laundering. This information is given in materials that were made public during a seminar devoted to the opening of this project in Russia. It is planned that the term of this project will be 30 months (from February 1, 2003 until July 31, 2005). The aim of the project is to give assistance to the Financial Monitoring Committee (FMC) in carrying out its functions in accordance with law, including its responsibilities related to information, coordination, international cooperation, as well as extension of the potential for cooperation between the judicial system and the FMC within the framework of institutions responsible for fighting money laundering.

According to FMC head Viktor Zubkov, this project is intended to give assistance to the financial sector and organizations that are obliged to provide information about the financial transactions of their clients within the framework of cooperation with the FMC. He added that the FMC of Russia intended to finance the purchase of software for initial analysis of information from the financial sector and organizations cooperating with the FMC from the above-mentioned funds.