Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhii Marchenko made the keynote speech at the online event “Countering Russian threats to global financial security†organized by the Atlantic Council think tank.
Other participants were Timothy Ash, Senior Sovereign Strategist at BlueBay Asset Management; John Cusack, founder of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime; Olena Halushka, co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, and Brian O’Toole, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center. The discussion was moderated by John E. Herbst, Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.
The event was dedicated to discussing tools to counter russian threats that undermine global financial security.
Serhii Marchenko emphasized that Russia is fully responsible for its criminal actions against the global economic system. Its war against Ukraine has caused a global energy crisis and dramatically raised food costs, causing great harm across the world, and especially in developing economies.
Meanwhile, countless investigations have uncovered russia’s complicity in money laundering, which has only increased following the introduction of wide-ranging sanctions since the full-scale invasion. Furthermore, russia has been found to enable or cooperate with various terrorist groups and blacklisted states.
“In the aftermath of the Cold War, world powers put in place systems of global governance. The goal was to protect liberal values, human rights and the global economy. But such a system only works when its members follow the rules. With the violent invasion of Ukraine, widespread support of corruption, and documented financing of terrorism, putin’s russia makes a total mockery of the rules-based international order,†the Minister of Finance noted.
In order to protect and strengthen the global financial system in the long term, Minister Marchenko urged the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to exclude Russia from the organization and blacklist it.
“This is arguably the most effective tool for restricting terrorist access to the global economy, as it forces all states to apply enhanced due diligence to any transactions with the financial system of a blacklisted jurisdiction. This will significantly increase the cost of doing business with russia and effectively choke putin’s ability to finance his illegal war of aggression,†the Minister of Finance said.
Serhii Marchenko concluded that the global world order which has given us an unprecedented period of peace and economic development, can only survive if the rules are followed. “The time has come to put an end to russian terrorism and use mechanisms available to the international community to ensure compliance with these rules,†Minister Marchenko said.
This month, FATF members will gather in Paris to consider further measures against russia on a symbolic date – exactly one year since russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine are taking systematic measures to isolate russia in the field of financial monitoring and urge other states to assist in this process by supporting the final expulsion of russia from FATF and including russia on the FATF blacklist.
During its June plenary meeting, FATF decided to suspend the rights of russia as a member and limit its participation in the organization. In October 2022, FATF took further measures to limit the membership benefits of the russian federation, including restricting its ability to participate in the work of FATF and prohibiting it from participating in regional groups.
