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15 July 2003 According to reports in the Russian media, during a landmark meeting between Swiss President, Pascal Couchepin and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin last week, |
the Russian President was asked by Couchepin to remove four Swiss cantons from the 'blacklist' of offshore tax havens regularly issued by the Russian Central Bank.
The updated version of this list - which is compiled by the Central Bank in conjunction with the OECD and FATF - will not include Cyprus or Latvia, according to Central Bank announcements made earlier this year. However in a meeting between the two leaders on Friday, President Putin was asked to consider removing Zug, Neuchatel, Friburg, and Geneva from the list as well.
Currently, Russian banks wanting to lend money in those cantons must reserve between 50% and 100% of the amount lent, making them unattractive as business locations.
President Couchepin announced after the summit that the two leaders intend to meet again.
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