On 23 July 2010 the President signed Federal Law No. 176-FZ amending the Anti-Money Laundering Law and the Administrative Offences Code. The Law will enter into force on 24 January 2011.

The amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law expand its application to overseas branches, representative offices and subsidiaries of Russian controlling organisations (that is, organisations carrying out operations with their clients' monetary funds and other assets, which are obliged to perform a number of anti-money laundering duties).

The amendments to the Administrative Offences Code detail and apply different degrees of liability to various types of breaches by controlling organisations of anti-money laundering provisions. They also vest the Central Bank with the power to impose administrative liability on credit organisations for such breaches.

On 27 July 2010 the President signed Federal Law No. 197-FZ amending the Anti-Money Laundering Law. The Law will enter into force on 29 October 2010.

According to the Anti-Money Laundering Law, an operation with cash funds or other assets is subject to mandatory anti-money laundering control if at least one party to the operation is an entity or an individual known to be involved in extremist or terrorist activity. Such individuals and entities are recorded in a special private list (it is accessible only by various controlling organisations) by the controlling authority (that is, the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring).

The amendments introduce the grounds on which listed individuals and entities may be taken off the list, and also provide that most of the data on the individuals and entities that were at some point included in the list will be publicly available on the controlling authority's website (www.fedsfm.ru) and in an official publication.