EU to blacklist Russia for money laundering – Politico

The European Commission has decided to add Russia to its blacklist of countries with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

According to Ukrinform, Politico reported this, citing two European officials and reviewed documents.

The global watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) suspended Russia as a member after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but failed to blacklist it, despite evidence presented by the Ukrainian government, because of opposition from countries in the BRICS group of emerging economies, which includes Brazil, India, China, South Africa, alongside Russia itself.

EU lawmakers called on the Commission many times to do what FATF was not able to.

POLITICO saw a draft of the Russia decision, which will be an annex to the list.

The EU already has a wide range of sanctions heavily limiting access to EU financial services for Russian firms.

The blacklisting is landing as the EU executive is trying to end Belgium's resistance to using the revenues from Moscow's frozen assets to fund Ukraine.

The move will oblige financial institutions to strengthen due diligence on all transactions and force banks that have not already acted to further de-risk.

The EU has usually aligned itself with FATF decisions, but from this year, it has its own Anti-Money Laundering Authority. AMLA will contribute to drafting the blacklist from July 2027.

 As Ukrinform reported, in June the EU was considering whether to blacklist Russia as a country with weak anti-money-laundering controls