MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Russia's anti-money laundering system will continue to operate effectively regardless of the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to blacklist Russia, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service reported (Rosfinmonitoring) reported on its Telegram channel.
Earlier, a number of media outlets reported that FATF may add Russia to its blacklist. The decision will be considered during the plenary week of October 21-25.
"We stress that regardless of the decision of the upcoming FATF plenary meeting, which will be held October 21-25, the Russian anti-money laundering system will continue to operate effectively and interact with states interested in ensuring financial security," the report says.
Rosfinmonitoring also noted that the Russian anti-money laundering system has always been compliant with international standards.
"This was confirmed by both the FATF assessment in 2019 and the assessment conducted by international experts last year. The Russian Federation's rating for three FATF recommendations was raised, and only for one was it lowered to the level of "Partial Compliance" (due to insufficient legislative regulation of the sphere of circulation of virtual currencies). Moreover, we note that since then, two federal laws regulating the circulation of digital currencies have already been adopted in the Russian Federation," the regulator says.
Rosfinmonitoring stressed that no strategic shortcomings of the anti-money laundering system were identified during the assessments. The basis for inclusion in the FATF "black list" is the presence of such shortcomings.
"We add that Russia conscientiously fulfills its obligations to cooperate in the field of combating the financing of terrorism - this was also noted by the UN International Court during the proceedings in the case of Ukraine versus Russia," the financial intelligence service notes.
Politico noted the day before that the country could be blacklisted not only on suspicion of money laundering, but also, for example, on the basis of accusations related to the financing of the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The publication specified that this decision requires consensus of all members of this group, which includes about 40 countries, in particular China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
About FATF
The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering is an intergovernmental organization that develops global standards in the field of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism, and also assesses the compliance of national systems with these standards. FATF was founded in 1989 and has headquarters in Paris.