On August 18, 2020, the Council of Europe’s (COE) anti-corruption body (GRECO) released an evaluation of Russia [3] and, on August 26, 2020, the Council’s anti-money laundering body (MONEYVAL) released an evaluation of the Czech Republic [4].

GRECO’s evaluation of Russia assessed its compliance with 22 recommendations relating to “[c]orruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors.” Russia has shown improvement in areas such as the creation of “clear and objective criteria for the assignment of cases to prosecutors” and “initial training and on-going training on corruption prevention issues” for judges. Recommendations that had not been implemented included limiting the “immunity of judges … to activities related to their participation in the administration of justice” and reviewing the “process of recruiting judges.” GRECO requested an update on further implementation by June 2021.

A summary [5] of MONEYVAL’s report states “that the … [Czech Republic] has improved measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, but still needs to make progress.” The country has made considerable improvement in areas such as “the strengthening of countermeasures against countries and jurisdictions which represent a high [money laundering and terrorism financing] risk; and the removing of regulatory gaps for correspondent banking relationships.” By contrast, the country has not made sufficient progress in areas such as “financial sanctions related to terrorism, and mechanisms to track the movement of cash across borders.” The report’s conclusion stated, “[t]he Czech Republic will remain in enhanced follow-up and … is expected to report back in one year’s time.”