Paris, 17 December 2019 - The Russian Federation (Russia) has an in-depth understanding of its money laundering and terrorist financing risks and has established policies and laws to address these risks, but it should enhance its approach to supervision and prioritise the investigation and prosecution of complex money laundering cases, especially concerning money being laundered abroad.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Eurasian Group and MONEYVAL, assessed Russia’s anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system. The assessment is a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of Russia’s measures and their compliance with the FATF Recommendations. This includes an assessment of its actions to address the risks emanating from UN and domestically designated terrorists and terrorist organisations. The report does not address the justification that led to the domestic designation of an entity as a terrorist or terrorist group or organisation.

Russia recognises that it faces significant money laundering risks as a result of the proceeds of crimes committed within the country, in particular those related to corruption and its role as both a transit and destination country for narcotics trafficking. A national risk assessment, complemented by in-depth knowledge of relevant law enforcement agencies, has allowed the country to identify and understand its risks, including terrorist financing risks. Russia’s legal framework appropriately addresses these risks and the country has formal policies in place, supported by strong domestic co-ordination and co-operation, to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. However, the country needs to address gaps in its ability to freeze, without delay, assets linked to terrorism, financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and ensure that this freezing obligation extends to all natural and legal persons.

In general, Russia cooperates with foreign counterparts, including through more than 100 international co-operation agreements with its financial intelligence unit, Rosfmonitoring. Authorities make excellent use of financial intelligence, based on a wealth of collected data and analysed with sophisticated technologies to contribute to money laundering and terrorist financing investigations. While the country has prioritised getting money back for the victims of crimes – around EUR 816 million per year – it needs to focus more on the investigation and prosecution of complex money laundering cases, especially concerning money being laundered abroad.

Russia has strengthened its oversight of the banking sector and has now mitigated the risks of criminals being the owners or controllers of financial institutions. However, deficiencies in licensing remain and the sanctions for banks that do not comply with AML/CFT requirements are not effective or dissuasive.

In general, financial and certain non-financial entities such as accountants and auditors, have a good understanding of how their services could be used to launder the proceeds of criminal activity or terrorist financing, but given that Russia is a significant centre for mining precious metals and stones, this sector’s understanding of risk is not in line with the country’s risk assessment.

Since its last assessment in 2008, Russia has strengthened its understanding of the money laundering and terrorist financing risks it faces and has developed a robust legal framework to address them. The country has taken a number of actions that have delivered concrete results. But, the country needs to address the areas of weakness this report has identified.

The FATF adopted this report at its October 2019 Plenary meeting.

Source: FATF-GAFI.ORG - Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

From 01.01.2020, a new entity will appear on the financial market - the operator of the investment platform. In accordance with subparagraph 7) of clause 1 of article 2 of Federal law dated 02.08.2019 No. 259-FL "On attracting investments using investment platforms and on amending certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation" the operator of the investment platform is a business company created in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, carrying out activities to organize investment attraction and included by the Bank of Russia in the register of investment platform operators.

It is worth noting that from 01.01.2020 the amendments to the Federal Law of 07.08.2001 also come into force. No. 115-FL "On combating the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism" (hereinafter - Law No. 115-FL), according to which:

1. Operators of investment platforms become the subject of Law No. 115-FL (Supplement to the first part of Article 5 with a new fourth paragraph of the above law);

2. The operators of investment platforms are entrusted with the obligations specified in Article 7 of Law No. 115-FL, including the application of measures to freeze (block) money or other property in accordance with the requirements established by subparagraph 6 of paragraph 1 of Article 7 of Law No. 115- Federal Law. 

3. The operators of investment platforms have been granted the rights specified in Article 7 of Law No. 115-FL, in particular:

- simplified identification of investment platform operators with respect to customers in certain cases, namely: when concluding agreements on the provision of investment assistance services involving investment using the investment platform for an amount not exceeding 100,000 rubles, provided that all settlements are carried out exclusively in non-cash form on accounts opened with a Russian credit institution;

- an assignment of the identification procedure to third parties - on the basis of the contract to entrust the credit organization with the identification or simplified identification of the individual customer, as well as the identification of the client’s representative, beneficiary and beneficial owner.

4. The internal control rules of the Investment Platform Operators are developed taking into account the requirements approved by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in agreement with the authorized body, and approved by the head of the organization.

5. Qualification requirements for special officials responsible for the implementation of internal control rules, targeted internal control rules, as well as requirements for training and education, identification of clients, client representatives (including identification of the sole executive body as a representative of the client), beneficiaries and beneficial owners are determined in accordance with the procedure established by the Bank of Russia.

Please note that non-compliance with the requirements of Law No. 115-FL entails the prosecution of an official and organization on the basis of Article 15.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The consequences of non-compliance with the requirements of the AML/CFT legislation May result in criminal prosecution.

For questions regarding the organization of work on the implementation of Law No. 115-FL and training, write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On November 5, 2019, a round table was held at the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the topic: “Electronic Commerce. Smart contracts. New Opportunities of the Digital Economy ”, which discussed the main problems of legal support of electronic commerce.

At the event, the main trends of the digital economy were presented and the state of legal regulation of this sphere was outlined. According to Suren Vardanyan, Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, opening the meeting, the Chamber pays special attention to digitalization issues: digital products are being developed that allow entrepreneurs to receive new services, and the Chamber follows the main economic trends. “We try at all the events that take place within the walls of the MCCI to develop specific proposals, which we then pass on to the authorities and all interested departments,” Vardanyan emphasized.

According to Igor Sudets, Deputy Director of the Digital State Development Department of the Ministry of Digital Development, Telecommunications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, 17 draft laws are currently being drafted to regulate the main directions of digitalization of the Russian economy. In the near future it is expected that the Government will give instructions on the preparation of about 60 more draft laws. For example, the draft law on digital financial assets has already undergone seven editions, but has not yet been submitted to the State Duma. Now the eighth version of the document is being prepared. The total budget allocation for federal projects related to the implementation of digital technologies is 1634.9 billion rubles. The main national programs being implemented now, according to Igor Sudets, are a training program for the digital economy; digital infrastructure creation; digital technology development; digital security; development of legal regulation and the creation of digital state regulation. As for the latter, as stated by the representative of the Ministry of Communications, the basic principle of digital government is “a person does not need to know which authority he interacts with. He sends a request, and the state executes it. " Moreover, according to the expert, “the state itself should come to us”: after some time, every citizen can receive push notifications about what actions he needs to take: pay taxes, replace a driver’s license, etc.

 Artem Dalevich, Vice President of the ICIE, spoke about the implementation of the secure transaction mechanism using escrow accounts on the Business Market platform, developed and implemented by the MCCI

Since lawyers made up a large share of the roundtable audience, one of the main topics of discussion was the legal regulation of electronic commerce. Senior Associate at Rödl & Partner Alexandra Nechaeva spoke about the main risks that accompany the conclusion of contracts in online trading. It was, in particular, about the interpretation of the concept of an offer and the moment of its receipt, as well as about the differences between online and distance trading. The speaker emphasized that there is no definition of electronic commerce in the legislative field, which leads to a rather arbitrary interpretation of the electronic commerce process in judicial practice. In addition, Alexandra Nechaeva said that Russia has not developed approaches to determining the jurisdiction of transactions involving foreign elements. Summing up her speech, the speaker noted that “the problems of determining jurisdiction are now one of the first in matters of the digital economy”.

Svetlana Mochalina, head of the risk management department at L'Occitane, spoke about the legal risks of an international company in the retail industry in Russia. A franchise firm defended its interests by registering trademark rights. This almost completely prevented parallel sales.

The topic of the speech of DDC Ltd Director Ilya Mikheev was smart contracts. Since this is a very promising form of digital agreements, the message caused serious interest from the audience. According to the expert, for the first time a smart contract appeared a long time ago - in 1996. “In principle, a smart contract is a computer code that guarantees the fulfillment of obligations subject to all agreed conditions,” the speaker explained. Another important distinguishing feature of a smart contract is that it must be hosted in a decentralized, trusted environment. Such an environment is guaranteed, in particular, by blockchain technology. Smart contracts are already used, for example, in diamond verification.

The representative of the company-operator of fiscal data OFD.ru Dmitry Pogozhev talked about the currently introduced product labeling system, its advantages and disadvantages.

Summing up the round table, the moderator of the meeting, forensic financial expert Natalya Manuylova noted that "the digital economy is not only cryptocurrency and blockchain." The main purpose of the event was to identify the risks that entrepreneurs face in introducing digital technologies, and to outline ways to minimize them, including using compliance procedures.

The Advisor to the President of the MCCI Marina Evteeva thanked all the speakers and participants for the informative conversation and assured that all the proposals that were voiced would be summarized and brought to the attention of the leadership of the chamber.

The event was supported by the Government of Moscow and the Department of Economic Policy and Development of Moscow...

Source: Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The seventh conference of ITS Moscow 2019 will be held on November 29 of the current year (at 13:00, Skolkovo Technopark). At the event, a report on the work for 10 years from the Chairman of the Management Board, Viktor Vladimirovich Minin, will be presented.

This year ACISO is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The Association brought together ambitious, successful, talented experts in the field of information security. Also in the program are reports of ACISO Members: Alexander Mishurin, Mikhail Smirnov, Alexander Pershin, Konstantin Samatov, etc.

After which, it is planned to hold the Reporting and Election Conference of ACISO. It is held every two years and is obligatory for visits by all members of ACISO. If a member of the Association does not have the opportunity to attend the event, he draws up a power of attorney for the right to vote.

Source: ACISO.