Closed Roundtable: “Increasing the Effectiveness of Anti-russian Sanctions”
1 Mar 2024, 08:30 – 12:00 CET
The Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the Association for International Affairs (AMO), Reconstruction of the State in cooperation with the British Embassy in Prague and Resistant.ai organized a closed roundtable entitled Increasing the Effectiveness of Anti-Russian Sanctions.
The event was attended by 34 Representatives of public, private and nonprofit organizations involved in the implementation of sanctions. These Included Jan Marian - Deputy Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czech Republic, Jiří Valenta - Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance, UK Ambassador Matt Field and director level representatives of Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS), RUSI, banks, industry associations, the Financial Analytical Office, Ministry of Industry and Trade, National Center against Organized Crime, Office of the Government, think tanks, both chambers of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and the U.S. Embassy Prague.
The first session facilitated by Lukáš Kraus, Head of the Analytical Unit, Rekonstrukce státu focused on options to improve the national Czech sanction legislation and also the international sanction regime. Participants discussed issues of the beneficial ownership registry, export control, capacities of involved institutions, communication and options to affect third countries, information sharing and coordination between various EU member states, options for implementing various tools used elsewhere - like the reverse burden of proof.
The second session was led by Tom Keatinge, Founding Director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS), RUSI and stared by a presentation by Lucie Reháková, AML & Fraud Solutions Engineer, Resistant.AI, that focused on software capable of data analytics for AML and sanction evasion detection and investigation. Mrs. Reháková further elaborated on various key aspects that affect private sector capabilities to adhere to demands placed on financial institutions to comply with extensive sanctions related regulation and also opened the debate for how the involvement of the private sector can be beneficial to sanctions implementations, for example by using proven AML frameworks.