Ministry of Finance welcomes the Financial Action Taskforce’s (FATF) decision to suspend russia’s membership

Today, exactly one year since russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) announced its decision to suspend russia’s membership. Ministry of Finance welcomes this important step that will help protect global financial system from russia’s risks.

Following plenary meetings in Paris this week, FATF expressed concerns about russia’s reported arms trade with United Nations-sanctioned jurisdictions and russia’s malicious cyber activity. FATF recognised Russia’s actions are unacceptable and run counter to the organisation’s core principles and violate the commitment of members to international cooperation and mutual respect.

FATF has called upon all jurisdictions “to remain vigilant of threats to the integrity, safety and security of the international financial system arising from Russia’s war against Ukraine.” FATF reiterated that all jurisdictions “should be alert to possible emerging risks from the circumvention of measures taken in order to protect the global financial system and take the necessary measures to mitigate these risks.”

Responding to FATF’s decision, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said: “What do we call someone who speaks like a terrorist and behaves like a terrorist? A terrorist. The world now understands the realities of russia’s war against Ukraine and the risks Russia poses to the international financial system. Russia’s FATF suspension is a clear signal that all actors must exercise extreme caution when attempting any transactions with the russian financial system. If it was not already obvious to some that russia is a risky jurisdiction, FATF’s decision means that global businesses should enhance their due diligence and risk assessment when dealing with russia, and global jurisdictions should enhance their regulations and update risk advise to markets.”

FATF is an intergovernmental organisation founded on the initiative of the G7 to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. The FATF’s decision to suspend Russia is a recognition of russia’s failure to meet FATF standards.

“russia uses terrorist tactics in Ukraine which affect Ukrainian civilians and threatens the whole world with nuclear terrorism. russia has enabled or otherwise co-operated with various terrorist groups and blacklisted states, including North Korea, Iran, the Assad regime in Syria, the Wagner Group, the Taliban and Hizbollah. Finally, russia fosters corruption and other offences set out as predicate offences by the FATF, such as cybercrime, drug and human trafficking, and organised crime,” Minister Marchenko said.  

 The Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and the Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine have worked from the start of the full-scale invasion to highlight Russia’s non-compliance with FATF standards. We will continue the dialogue with FATF members to ensure russia’s inclusion on the FATF black list in the future as part of our work to help protect the global financial system and restrict the access of the russian military dictatorial regime to the global economy.

Additional Information

The Ukrainian Ministry of Finance, the Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Parliament have worked from the very start of the full-scale invasion to highlight Russia’s non-compliance with FATF standards. Ukraine has made a number of submissions ahead of the FATF Plenaries in June and October. These efforts resulted in FATF implementing restrictive measures against Russia.

In March and in April 2022, FATF issued a public statement and adopted the Declaration of the Ministers of the Financial Action Task Force declaring that the Russian military invasion of Ukraine ran counter to the FATF core principles aiming to promote security, safety and the integrity of the global financial system. FATF added that the invasion also represented a gross violation of the commitment to international cooperation and mutual respect upon which FATF Members had agreed to implement and support the FATF Standards.

In June, FATF announced Russia could no longer hold any leadership or advisory roles or take part in decision-making on standard-setting, FATF peer review processes, governance, and membership matters. The Russian Federation can also no longer provide assessors, reviewers, or other experts for FATF peer-review processes.

In October, FATF imposed additional restrictions on Russia, including barring Russia from all current and future projects and participating in meetings of FATF and its regional partner bodies.