Official: Russia taken off international money laundering blacklist Fri Oct 11, 5:24 AM ET
MOSCOW - An international task force monitoring money laundering has removed Russia from its blacklist of countries failing to counter the crime, Russian news agencies Friday quoted a a Russian official as saying.
Alexei Gorshkov, head of the government information office, said the Financial Action Task Force's move would help improve the country's financial image and attract international investors.
"The government of Russia believes that our country recently has done a lot to leave this list, in the legal sphere as well as in the executive branch," Interfax news agency quoted Gorshkov as saying.
At an FATF meeting in June, the group said Russia made progress by passing new laws, but that it wanted to keep watching to ensure legislation was enforced.
Russia has long been seeking to get off the list.
The FATF was set up in 1989 by the leading industrialized nations.
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