PARIS, June 20. /TASS/. The potential inclusion of Russia into one black lists of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will be a political decision and discredit the organization, research director of the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) Jacques Sapir told TASS.

"There will be nothing surprising if Russia finds itself in one of these lists, despite efforts undertaken by it for several years," Sapir said. Decisions to include countries into the "gray list" or the "black list" from the financial standpoint are rarely technical and made under the influence of political factors, he noted. "In actual fact, the scale of financial sanctions introduced by the EU or the US is much higher than the ones provided for by FATF," the expert said.

The decision to confiscate private assets is possible only after a court decision and not by a sole decision of authorities, Sapir said. However, the decision would be a political one in this case also and would have extremely grave consequence "from the standpoint of the potential Russian retaliation" and from the viewpoint of neutral countries inevitably expressing concerns of such steps, he said. "This will undermine confidence in FATF and prompt certain countries to leave it," the expert adds.

"If FATF resorts to such step, it risks discrediting itself, which is a problem, because the need for a non-politicized regulatory authority is very high in this area," Sapir added.