The Czech financial and analytical department, which has the right to freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs, complains about the reluctance of Cyprus to provide information about the owners of companies, which means that Prague's attempts to find and punish Russian oligarchs often fail.

Euractiv writes about it.

The head of the financial and analytical department Jiri Hilmar complained to the Czech Senate about cooperation with some European countries.

“Today I received a response from Cyprus that our local colleague is incompetent in international sanctions and I will not receive the information requested,” Hilmar said at a meeting of the Czech Senate, adding that traces of suspicious assets often lead to Cyprus.

Until last year Cyprus allowed full secret ownership of companies as there was no official register of beneficial owners.. In addition, hundreds of thousands of companies are based there due to tax incentives.. Russian oligarchs also kept assets in Cyprus for many years and benefited from the policy of "

While the EU has been pressing Cyprus for years to take action against money laundering, the country has been reluctant to reform.

However, the barriers built by the Cypriot authorities are not the only obstacle preventing the Czech authorities from looking for Russian oligarchs..

Better legislation and more workers are also needed to facilitate the search and freeze of assets, according to the head of the Finance Department..

Czech authorities often rely on stories published by independent media. " When we read that there may be assets somewhere, we study such? hint,"

Recall that Cyprus has begun the procedure for depriving the citizenship of a number of sanctioned Russians and their relatives who previously received it under the "