OREANDA-NEWS A decision on the possible inclusion of Russia in the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) may be made on June 23, the last day of a confidential discussion at its plenary session in Paris this week. This date was called by TASS in the press service of the organization.

"The discussions at the plenary session are confidential, we intend to summarize their results on Friday evening," the FATF said, noting that they could not provide additional information until the discussions were completed.

Earlier it was reported that the organization on Tuesday, June 20, may begin discussing additional restrictions on Russia, including putting it on the blacklist of financially unreliable states. In February 2023, the country's membership in the FATF was suspended. At the same time, Russia retained responsibility for the implementation of FATF standards and the fulfillment of financial obligations.

If Russia is blacklisted, all member states of the group, as well as their financial organizations, will have to conduct enhanced verification of transactions with the country and, if necessary, take measures to protect the international financial system. Currently, Iran, Myanmar and North Korea are on the FATF blacklist, and 23 other states, including Turkey, South Africa and the UAE, are on the gray list.

As Bloomberg wrote, Moscow had previously appealed to at least 12 states, saying that if Russia was included in the blacklist, investments and cooperation in defense and energy projects could seriously suffer.

Vasily Solodkov, director of the HSE Banking Institute, warned earlier that blacklisting Russia would bring more problems than disconnecting from the SWIFT international payment system, since it would make transfers abroad impossible. According to the chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina, there are no objective grounds for including Russia in this list, but if a "politically motivated decision is made, then, of course, it will complicate payments," Kommersant wrote.