The EU may impose sanctions against Rosfinmonitoring and its head

The 12th package of EU sanctions against Russia, which is expected to be approved this week, may include the Russian financial intelligence agency – Rosfinmonitoring, as well as its director Yuri Chikhanchyn. This is stated in the draft sanctions list, which was reviewed by the investigative project of Radio Liberty and “Nastoyaschego Vremeny” “Sistema”.

Sanctions, as follows from the project, are proposed to be introduced due to the cooperation of Rosfinmonitoring with the Ministry of Defense of Russia, in the provision of the state defense order and the inclusion of critics of the Kremlin in the list of terrorists and extremists. Earlier, Chikhanchyn had already come under the sanctions of the USA, Ukraine, Canada and Australia, and Rosfinmonitoring was on the sanctions lists of New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada.

The official direction of Rosfinmonitoring’s activities is to combat the laundering of illegal income and the financing of terrorism. Sanctions against this agency can lead to the fact that the financial intelligence agencies of EU countries and countries that want to join the European Union will refuse to exchange any information with Russia, – believes the director of Transparency International – Russia Ilya Shumanov. At the same time, the majority of EU countries have already refused to exchange information with Rosfinmonitoring, however Shumanov does not rule out that cooperation in some cases continues – for example, in matters of international cooperation in the field of combating terrorism. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, almost all European financial intelligence agencies cooperated with Rosfinmonitoring to one degree or another.

According to Shumanov, EU sanctions against Rosfinmonitoring may affect Russia’s status in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), making its inclusion in the so-called series list more likely. This, in turn, can lead to additional problems for Russian citizens when opening accounts or acquiring assets abroad.

The day before, it became known that Austria withdrew its objections to the 12th package of sanctions after Ukraine suspended the inclusion of Raiffeisen Bank International in the list of “international war sponsors”. The package includes restrictions on the import of Russian diamonds, measures to combat sanctions evasion, and the expansion of “black lists” of individuals and legal entities.