UPDATE 1-Putin sets up commission to combat terrorism financing

by **Ponee** Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:33 am

Nov 18 President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday set up a commission to combat terrorism financing, the Kremlin said, in another sign of the Russian leader's heightened focus on what he says is a fight against Islamic State militants.

After attacks in Paris killed 129 people on Friday, security dominated the G20 summit at the weekend, where the group's leaders, in a rare departure from their usual focus on the global economy, agreed to step up border controls and aviation security and crack down on terrorist financing.

In a decree, effective immediately, Putin ordered the prosecutor general's office, the central bank and regional authorities to submit any information they may have on suspicious activities to the commission.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin said a bomb brought down the Russian passenger plane that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board.

The decree orders submission to the commission of any information on suspicious activities of organisations and individuals who are not on a list of those against whom there is sound information about their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism, in order to freeze their assets.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly and Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Lidia Kelly;; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/18/mideast-crisis-russia-financing-idUSL8N13D17420151118#ydFLcFKoRhV7S8Ap.97