Russia has frozen about 3,500 individual accounts that are suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and has launched 62 criminal cases over financing terrorism, the head of Russia’s Financial Monitoring said on Monday.

      “Overall we have frozen somewhere around 3,500 accounts of individuals on suspicion of terrorism and extremism", Yury Chikhanchin from Russia’s Financial Monitoring reported. He added that the fight against financing terrorism had advanced and that 62 criminal cases had been launched in the country.

      In early February, Russia proposed a draft resolution at the UN Security Council, aimed at cutting off finance to the Islamic State and Nusrah Front militant groups, devastating large parts of Syria and Iraq. The resolution was unanimously adopted on February 12.

      According to the ICSR think tank, between 800 and 1,500 Russian nationals have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join extremist groups.