MINSK, 2 February (BelTA) – The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) intends to establish an international center for money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment, BelTA learned from the press service of the CIS Executive Committee.
This matter was discussed during a web-based session of the CIS council of heads of financial intelligence services that took place on 2 February. The session brought together representatives of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the CIS Executive Committee, the CIS security agencies, the International Training and Methodology Center for Financial Monitoring, and the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism.
“The center will ensure exchange of data and digital documents between participants of online interaction within the CIS council of heads of financial intelligence services. The legal status of the center will be formalized in an appropriate interstate agreement. Plans are in place to draft and discuss the agreement in 2021,” the press service said.
The members of the council also approved the official completion of the Mlechny Put (Milky Way) operation that had been running in the CIS since 2015. The operation was aimed at detecting and investigating participants of the grey market for services in redistribution and laundering of funds obtained from various illegal activities. This work will continue within the framework of the new project under the title Orion.
The participants of the session shared their countries' experience in fighting legalization of income obtained by criminal means, terrorism financing, proliferation of mass destruction weapons, and crimes with cryptocurrencies. They also discussed activities of some working groups set up at the council.
