E.U. blacklisting over ‘money laundering and terrorist financing’ pushes Russia further into pariah status — Meduza
meduza.io
The European Union plans to add Russia to its list of countries with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing, Politico reported this week. Once official, the decision will exacerbate Russia’s international pariah status, jeopardizing investment and trade flows that emerged in response to Western sanctions against Moscow after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Meduza spoke with anti-corruption expert Ilya Shumanov to understand what Russia’s inclusion on the E.U.’s blacklist will mean for the Kremlin, Russian businesses, and ordinary citizens.

Web archive link

The E.U. blacklisting will further isolate Russia’s financial system, making cooperation significantly riskier for foreign banks and investors. “In practical terms, landing on this list serves as a global warning: engaging with this country entails serious risk,” Shumanov explained. He pointed out that the designation will force even “friendly countries” like China and Turkey to curb Russia-linked operations to avoid “ending up among the pariahs or rogue states that assist those on these blacklists.” Credit-rating agencies may incorporate the blacklist status into sovereign credit assessments, reducing Russia’s access to investment, technology, and partnerships. “Entire industries face long-term contraction,” Shumanov explained.

Inclusion among countries like Myanmar, Mali, Kenya, South Africa, Venezuela, and Syria has nothing to do with attracting investment or developing global commerce. Instead, Shumanov said, it signals Russia’s erasure from numerous investment programs and bars Russian businesses from prospective projects, largely because numerous governments closely track European economic policy.

…

  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dkEnglish
    13·
    1 天前

    This isn’t even just a pretext for Russia to go and get as fucked as they so rightfully deserve. It’s an accurate assessment. Russia isn’t a country - it’s a criminal syndicate claiming to be a country. It’s structured that way, it’s run that way. What else would anybody sane call a country where the husband / wife team managing Wildberries have hired armed PMC personnel having shootouts in their offices because they belong to different power cliques? Or where graveyard mafias are opportunistically exploiting the influx of war-dead to make illicit profits off the bereaved families?

    The whole place is a shit-pile. If you invest in a shit-pile, your ROI will predictably be a pile of shit. It’s perfectly sensible for the EU to caution against that.

    • verdi@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      19 小时前

      To be fair, the US, China, Saudi, Qatar, the UAE et al are not so different from what you just described. Borrel did have a point, but we’re degrading our standards to look more like the outside rather than helping the outside returning to the civilisation we contributed to destroying.