According to the US Department of the Treasury, a number of countries (including China, India, Turkey, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Serbia, Israel) are still helping Russia avoid sanctions. In order for the situation to fundamentally change, it is necessary to include the Russian Federation in the “black list” of the Financial Action Task Force, the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.
Such a decision will be a powerful blow to the reputation of Russia, which will become as toxic as possible (worse than North Korea) for any business, investment and assistance, and will significantly narrow the room for maneuvers with the countries that still help it.
Russia is included on the “grey list” that brings a list of problems including downgrading ratings, negative impact on potential foreign investments and on relations with international banks and financial institutions, higher compliance requirements and more rigorous monitoring measures, other economic pressures such as trade deficits and rising inflation.
The FATF group, founded by the G7 in 1989, today has 37 member countries and two member organizations (one of which is the EU), and more than 200 UN members have signed commitments to implement its recommendations aimed at preventing organized crime, corruption, money laundering and terrorism.
The State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine are working on the issue of including Russia in the FATF “black list”. The Yermak-McFaul Plan of April also contained similar proposals.
