BRUSSELS, February 14. /TASS/. The European Union has included Russia into the list of countries viewed as tax havens, the EU Council said in its statement released on Tuesday.

"The EU continues to promote fair tax competition and address harmful tax practices. The Council today decided to add British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Marshall Islands and Russia to the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes," the EC Council said.

"Russia is listed after the code of conduct group screened Russia’s new legislation adopted in 2022 against the good tax governance criteria of the code and found that Russia had not fulfilled its commitment to address the harmful aspects of a special regime for international holding companies (criterion 2.1)," according to the statement. "In addition, dialogue with Russia on matters related to taxation came to a standstill following the Russian aggression against Ukraine," the EU Council said.

"With these additions, the EU list now consists of 16 jurisdictions," the EU Council added.