President briefed about sanctions' monitoring improvement, confirms call for foreign experts

President Nikos Christodoulides has been briefed on the course of implementation of decisions taken regarding the improvement of the monitoring framework of the sanctions imposed on Russia by the USA and about the course of investigations carried out for violating sanctions.

After the 20 November meeting at the Presidential Palace, Christodoulides confirmed that he "requested the assistance of foreign experts from a country that has great expertise in these matters."

The meeting, chaired by President Christodoulides, was attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Constantinos Kombos, Justice and Public Order Anna Koukkides-Prokopiou and Finance Makis Keravnos, the Deputy Minister to the President Irene Piki, the Director of the Diplomatic Office of the President of the Republic Marilena Raouna, the Director of the Office of the President Charalambos Charalambous and the Director of the Press Office of the President of the Republic Victor Papadopoulos.

The Attorney General George Savvides and the Deputy Attorney General Savvas Angelides were also present at the meeting.

In his statements to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), the Director of the Press Office of the President of the Republic Victor Papadopoulos said that during the meeting, "the President of the Republic was informed about the progress of the implementation of the decisions taken on 28 June regarding the improvement of the sanctions monitoring framework, following the sanctions imposed on Cypriots and Cypriot companies".

He also said that "the President of the Republic was also informed about the progress of investigations being carried out for violating sanctions, that resulted either from complaints made through the Unit for Combating Money Laundering (MOKAS) or from the data sent by the USA, but also from what has been brought to light recently by ICIJ (the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists)".

In addition, Papadopoulos said that on his part, President Christodoulides informed the participants of the meeting that he "requested the assistance of foreign experts from a country that has great expertise in these matters and asked those in charge to facilitate and prepare the ground so that these experts can come and assist in the police investigations."

(Source: CNA)