White House and State Department officials are also likely to face questions very soon. The issue is also expected to dominate talks in Moscow this week between Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and senior Russian Foreign Ministry officials. The questions stem from charges that billions of dollars were channeled through the Bank of New York in the last year, in what could be the biggest money-laundering operation by Russian organized crime in the United States.
Money laundering is a term used by law enforcement to describe a common activity of organized crime.
Aleksandr Livshits, Russian minister without portfolio in charge of ties with the G-7 leading industrial nations, has said Russia is ready and willing to provide the United States with fresh explanations on how it spent its IMF loans. And Russian Finance Minister Mihail Kasyanov has dismissed charges that the government might be involved. So far, no one has been formally charged in Russia or in the United States. However, the New York bank that is the subject of part of the investigation, the Bank of New York, has fired two senior executives involved in Russian transactions. In Washington, the U.S. Departments of Treasury and State, as well as the National Security Council, have begun immediate reviews of their Russia policy, while the U.S. Justice Department is investigating.