The portrait of a terrorist has changed, and responsibility for drops needs to be increased
The work of financial intelligence requires adjustment in connection with changes in the strategy of terrorists, which was clearly demonstrated by the tragic events in Crocus City Hall and Makhachkala. The head of Rosfinmonitoring, Yuri Chikhanchin, stated this at a meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Budget and Financial Markets on July 16. At the same time, he reported that the international financial intelligence association FATF had tried to blacklist Russia seven times in a row.
In his speech, Chikhanchin paid a lot of attention to the fight against the financing of terrorism. Now Rosfinmonitoring, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Investigative Committee, the Central Bank and the prosecutor’s office, is trying to make changes in two directions. First, agencies are trying to speed up the format of messages from banks in order to quickly block the actions of criminals. Secondly, work is underway to adjust the model of terrorist behavior, which is constantly being improved. According to Chikhanchin, today the portrait of the average terrorist looks completely different than it did ten years ago. “Then a typical terrorist was a person from the Caucasus at the age of twenty-five, but now terrorists of different nationalities and religions are appearing, they can be women and children,” explained the head of Rosfinmonitoring. In 2024, the department was able to freeze the assets of persons suspected of involvement in terrorism in the amount of more than 200 million rubles.
Chikhanchin also commented on the latest major terrorist attacks. According to him, people of different nationalities were involved in the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall, which killed 145 people and injured more than 550. “This is an international team with representatives from different countries,” Chikhanchin emphasized. “These are representatives of Central Asian countries, European countries, and there are a lot of Russians there.”
The head of Rosfinmonitoring also mentioned the fight against the shadow economy in his speech. The law-abidingness of the banking and non-banking sectors has increased significantly. “This year alone, using the criteria developed by Rosfinmonitoring, we managed to prevent about 300 billion rubles of shadow money from being put into circulation,” Chikhanchin said. His agency, together with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, stops the work of 10-15 shadow platforms per year, but the same number reappears. The head of financial intelligence even suggested that the domestic economy “has a need for ‘gray’ money.” “Apparently, not everything can be done transparently, and there is a need,” he explained. “But, on the other hand, we are concerned that criminals are using these schemes.” In 2024 alone, about 700 customers of shadow schemes were identified and about 90 criminal cases were opened against both customers and perpetrators.
Separately, Chikhanchin clarified the situation with drops — citizens who provide their personal data to carry out fraudulent transactions, for example, issue bank cards in their name and transfer them to cybercriminals. Rosfinmonitoring proposes to strengthen responsibility for such actions, and also give the agency the authority to quickly suspend such operations. Chikhanchin drew the attention of the senators to the fact that a lot of young people are involved in these schemes: more than 30% of drops in Russia are people under 25 years of age. He proposed introducing liability “for the use or transfer to third parties of their data” when people realize that it is “being used for criminal purposes”, and also liability for those who use these services or data of third parties. Rosfinmonitoring should be given the right to quickly suspend financial transactions carried out by such people, Chikhanchin is sure.
The head of financial intelligence also highlighted the situation with foreign exchange earnings coming to Russia. The share of national currencies in it is already about 70%. “We saw that the bulk of our exporters are law-abiding participants in foreign economic activity,” Chikhanchin noted.
The head of financial intelligence also touched upon the tense international situation in which his department has to conduct its work. The FATF has been trying to blacklist Russia for seven consecutive meetings. If one day a positive decision is made, this will lead to the cessation of “all financial transactions of all banks in the world with Russian business representatives, including banks.” Only established relations with the countries of Central Asia and BRICS save Russia from such a dramatic scenario: they do not allow FATF participants from the West to carry out their politicized decisions. Rosfinmonitoring continues to work together with interested departments, therefore, at the upcoming meeting in December, our country will probably be able to maintain its position in the international association of financial intelligence agencies.