Speech by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

Good afternoon, colleagues and friends,

I am very pleased to welcome you to this beautiful venue on the occasion of your professional holiday, the tenth anniversary of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring), or, as we initially called it, financial intelligence. Your organisation has played a very special role in defending our national security. It is a powerful information-gathering, analytical and expert centre designed to fight fiscal and financial crimes and is also a source of data essential for taking key economic and political decisions. You are the ones who stop shadowy financial flows, track and uncover the most complicated financial schemes perpetrated by criminal rings, organised crime and all kinds of wheelers and dealers, terrorist and extremist groups. The most complicated and tangled schemes, to be sure. Occasionally, I have the pleasure of looking over your materials. Indeed, there’s no way one can make any sense out of them without, as they say in Russia, rinsing your brains with a healthy dose of the Russians’ favourite enhancing substance. However, using any kind of enhancing substances will make these already complex matters totally incomprehensible; therefore, your work certainly calls for a clear head and very deep knowledge.

Without your work, there’s no way other agencies can work effectively to fight embezzlement, corruption, smuggling, or trafficking in weapons, narcotics or humans, or corporate and tax violations that, speaking in professional terms, leave a financial trace in their wake.

I would like to note that since its inception Rosfinmonitoring has shown itself to be an effective body. You have accomplished a lot, which is recognised both by your Russian and foreign partners and colleagues, primarily FATF, which coordinates international efforts to fight money laundering and terrorism financing.

The perseverance and diligence of Rosfinmonitoring employees helped quickly remove a series of material deficiencies in financial regulations and the registration of corporations; they have put in place necessary mechanisms to stop money laundering. All of that made it possible for Russia to become a full-fledged FATF member in 2003 and participate in the development of international standards in this sensitive and important sphere.

Let me also mention Rosfinmonitring’s success as part of the Egmont group, which is an informal association of international financial intelligence units. Primarily, this has to do with practical assistance to our CIS partners during their efforts to develop special services to fight financial crimes.

Strengthening cooperation and effective interaction with our close neighbours are among our priorities, especially now as we are accessing advanced forms of integration within the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. As you know, the Customs Union has already become operative. The single economic space will become a reality early next year, which will take integration between our countries to a still deeper level. We are about to create a vast market with flows of capital, goods, and services; these positive integration processes should be securely protected.

This can also be applied in full to our development programmes and to those ambitious projects that we are implementing in the economy and the social sphere. We need to establish a very tough system of monitoring budget spending. Perpetrators of illegal schemes involving kickbacks or siphoning off budget funds should get more than a slap on the wrist. They should be punched straight in the face to stop other coveters of the people’s money in their tracks.

I believe that Rosfinmonitoring should step up its cooperation with law enforcement agencies, as well as oversight and judicial bodies. Overall, the current level of cooperation is good, but improvement is always possible. Your files should enable law enforcement agencies to file criminal suits and take them to court. I would like to mention the role of Rosfinmonitoring in fighting corruption. This area of activity should be reinforced. I would like to stress that a reliable shield against money laundering is a key element of the government’s anti-corruption policy.

Certainly, financial transparency, protection of the economy and the banking system against criminal attacks is a pre-requisite for forming a civil business environment. Entrepreneurs, investors and regular citizens who act in good faith and abide by the law must feel that their rights and interests are being protected. And money launderers, fly-by-night businesses and shady lending institutions should be consistently eliminated from the business environment.

I know that Rosfinmonitoring is working closely with the business community. I have just met with top executives of the Russian Commerce and Industry Chamber and they asked me to convey their best wishes to you. I promised them I would. I believe that no one has any doubts that such an organisation as yours must maintain close contacts with associations of entrepreneurs.

Such joint actions and consultations should result in new rules and regulations governing financial and economic activities that are consistent with best international practices. The competitive business environment that we have been talking about for so long and that our country needs for sustainable development must certainly be the outcome of these joint efforts. This will be beneficial for the state due to incoming flows of capital, and the opening of new manufacturing facilities and new jobs, and for businesses. Clearly, transparency in corporate activities reinforces companies’ market situation and increases trust on behalf of partners and prospective investors. At the same time, stringent financial monitoring standards should not encumber businesses, so there’s need to find flexible frameworks that would take care of this. I’m here to ask you to remember this at all times.

In addition, Rosfinmonitoring’s activities should not be limited to investigating and stopping crime. It is very important to continue to develop and implement preventive measures and remove all kinds of loopholes making crimes possible or making possible illegal capital transfers. Your expert opinions, your expert proposals submitted to corresponding government departments are entirely appropriate and even expected. I believe that you have all you need to do so given your expertise and knowledge, advanced techniques and, above all, a tight-knit team of knowledgeable and responsible experts who have demonstrated their top-notch professionalism on many occasions.

Let me congratulate you once again. I wish to congratulate Viktor Zubkov, who is sitting in the audience. He is the person behind this service. Back when it was being established, it wasn’t easy to find people who would be capable of taking the first steps in this uncharted territory. Mr Zubkov himself and people that came on board with him to build this service from the ground up handled this task admirably. Thank you very much.

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After attending a festive gala at the Et Cetera theatre, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with the company's artistic director, Alexander Kalyagin.

Mr Kalyagin invited the Prime Minister to his office, where he showed Mr Putin some interesting billboards and souvenirs from the theatre's past and discussed some of the theatre's future artistic plans.