UK, Cyprus join Forces to Stop Dirty Russian Money
The UK will support Cyprus in establishing a new National Sanctions Implementation Unit to crack down on illicit Russian finance flowing through Europe, Keir Starmer’s office announced on Tuesday, after his meeting described as historic with President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia.
“Only by working with like-minded partners can we protect our interests both at home and abroad. Together with the Republic Cyprus, we are stemming the flow of illicit finance through Europe to starve Putin’s war machine and protect global stability,” he said.
Starmer added that “the Republic of Cyprus has frozen £1.5 billion in Russian assets since Putin’s barbaric full-scale invasion of Ukraine, supporting the collective effort to choke Russia’s war machine.
“President Christodoulides’ government also joined the UK-led Shadow Fleet initiative in July, to further support Ukraine and intercept ships undertaking illegal operations aimed at circumventing sanctions, evading compliance with safety or environmental regulations, and avoiding insurance costs.”
The partnership, agreed during the Nicosia meeting, “further strengthens the intelligence and security relationship between the two countries,” Starmer’s office said.
He said 46 countries and the EU have now signed up to the UK-led call to action against the Shadow fleet.
“The unit will share expertise and intelligence between the office of financial sanctions implementation and office of trade sanctions implementation and Cypriot ministry of finance to disrupt and intercept the flow of illicit finance through Europe to ensure the effectiveness of sanctions on Putin’s war machine,” the PM’s office said.
It added that “the new unit will include new analytical tools and powers to investigate sanctions evasion and track funds being moved across Europe.
“The unit comes as the UK also deepens cooperation with Cyprus on serious organised crime. We will work together to combat illicit finance by sharing knowledge on the registration of beneficial owners of assets.”
In addition, the UK will roll out financial crime training packages to law enforcement teams in Cyprus next year, delivered by UK National Crime Agency [and] it will support the upskilling of customs officers in Cyprus, delivered by HMRC, “helping to improve risk profiling and investigation and prosecution techniques on illicit tobacco.”
This will is in turn expected to disrupt smuggling activity and reduce the flows of illicit tobacco into the UK, supporting the government’s safer streets mission.
Source: Cyprus Mail
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