CSTO to combat terrorist cryptocurrency financing

At an extraordinary joint session of standing committees of CSTO PA chaired by Anatoly Vyborny, deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Security and Corruption Control on May 17, parliamentarians of the CSTO Member States examined draft model acts on suppressing channels of international terrorism and regulation of circulation of virtual assets (addressing the uncontrolled spread of cryptocurrencies and other electronic substitutes that undermine (destroy) national payment systems).
Draft Recommendations on Suppressing Channels of International Terrorism were adopted as a whole and, together with the proposals made, will be sent for approval to the parliaments of the CSTO Member States, after which they will be considered again at a session of the relevant Standing Commission on Defence and Security. Draft Recommendations on the Improvement of the CSTO Member States’ Legislation on Closing Channels of International Terrorism and Recommendations on Regulating the Circulation of Virtual Assets (Combating the Spread of Cryptocurrencies and Other Electronic Payment Surrogates Undermining (Destroying) National Financial Systems) were presented by Kirill Groschikov, deputy Head of Regulatory Department of Legal Directorate of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation, and adopted by the CSTO PA’s Expert Advisory Board as a whole.
In his presentation, Kirill Groshikov elaborated on the structure and essence of the document, especially on section “Public perils and risks associated with circulation of virtual assets,” which includes the practices of using virtual assets for criminal purposes, such as drug trafficking, terrorist financing and other criminal activities.
Draft Recommendations will be finalized shortly, after which they will also be submitted to parliaments of the CSTO Member States for examination, to be then presented to the CSTO PA Standing Commission on Socioeconomic and Legal Issues.