EU puts Russia on financial blacklist

Hello! Welcome to your weekly guide to the Russian economy, written by Alexander Kolyandr and Alexandra Prokopenko and brought to you by The Bell. This week we analyze the EU’s decision to put Russia on its financial blacklist, and what Putin hopes to bring back from his trip to India.

Before we start, The Bell is pleased to announce our upcoming webinar exclusively for our paid subscribers: Russia’s economy hit the brakes — is a full stop coming? hosted by our expert authors, Alexander Kolyandr and Alexandra Prokopenko, and our editor, Peter Mironenko.

What a difference a year makes. The Russian economy lurched from spectacular growth to near-stagnation, from consumer spending sprees to belt-tightening. The contradictions that officials papered over for months finally caught up with them — and the true costs of the war are now impossible to ignore.

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Brussels steps up fight against Russian finance

While the campaign to get Russia added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) global blacklist has so far not succeeded, the EU has gone ahead and placed Russia on its own list of countries with an elevated risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. This does not have the same severe consequences as the FATF list, but in practice it will lead to stricter oversight of all financial transactions in Europe that are in any way connected with Russia.