Under the chairmanship of Yury Chikhanchin, Minsk hosted the Plenary Session of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG). The session is scheduled to run for two days.
Russia is represented by an interagency delegation comprising deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Nikolay Zhuravlev, as well as representatives of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation, and the Bank of Russia.
Participants were welcomed by Vasily Gerasimov, Chairman of the Committee for State Control of the Republic of Belarus. In his address, he emphasized the increasing role and authority of the Eurasian Group in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Global Network and the effectiveness of the Group’s activities.
Mr. Chikhanchin thanked the Belarusian side for the high level of organization of the Plenary Week events and highlighted the key focus areas of the Plenum.
"The upcoming Plenary Session is intended to explore the results achieved during the intersessional period and to discuss further steps toward addressing our main objective – ensuring the financial security of the Eurasian Region," said EAG Chairman.
During the plenary session, delegates will review best practices from EAG member states to improve national anti-money laundering systems in line with updated FATF standards. The agenda also includes consideration of operational monitoring outcomes for EAG member states in the context of emerging risks of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, capacity-building initiatives in AML/CFT, and other matters of common interest.
The EAG Plenary Session is the key event of the Plenary Week held in Minsk from November 24 to 28. The event is attended by delegates from all nine EAG member states (Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), as well as observer states and international organizations. More than 300 representatives of government authorities, law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence units, private sector entities, and experts from 18 countries are participating in discussions on enhancing cooperation in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
