Paris, 25 February (GNP): The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a worldwide organization that monitors financial crimes, suspended Russia’s membership on Friday concluding that Moscow’s war in Ukraine breached the Organization’s regulations.
The FATF is an intergovernmental organization founded to knock out money laundering and the financial backing of terrorism by establishing International financial standards and monitoring their enforcement by countries.
This is the first time a member of FATF is suspended, FATF President Raja Kumar said at a news conference. “Russia is effectively sidelined from the organization”, he declared.
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Ukraine applauded the decision of suspending Russia as it had made repeated calls to exclude it from the organization, but announced to stick with its efforts of putting Russia on the “Blacklist”.
“It’s not enough but it’s an important step in the right direction”, said Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.
According to FATF, Russia will continue to be a member despite the suspension. However, It won’t be permitted to access any documents or attend any meetings.
“The Russian Federation remains accountable for its obligation to implement the FATF Standards. The Russian Federation must continue to meet its financial obligations,” the FATF continued.
The Paris-based group said in a statement, “The Russian Federation’s actions unacceptably run counter to the FATF core principles aiming to promote security, safety, and the integrity of the global financial system”.
Recent Update: On Friday, FATF dropped Morocco from its “Grey list” of countries under greater scrutiny to implement criteria to curb money laundering and terrorism financial backing and added South Africa and Nigeria to it.
