Sanctions
FBI director: Russia overestimates its ability to bypass US sanctions using crypto
Christopher Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that fiat was a more likely avenue for Russia to explore in circumventing sanctions, given the United States’ ability to block efforts using crypto. In a Thursday hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich asked the FBI director if Russia might respond to the economic impact of the United States banning imports of the country’s oil and gas by using reserves of gold, China’s currency or cryptocurrency. Director Wray said the FBI and its partners had “built up significant expertise” on digital assets, citing the department’s recent work in seizing large amounts of tokens as evidence there were vulnerabilities in using crypto to get around sanctions. “The Rus...
FinCEN includes crypto in alert on Russia potentially evading sanctions
The United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, a bureau of the Treasury Department, has warned financial institutions to consider crypto as a possible means Russia may attempt to use to evade sanctions related to the country’s military action in Ukraine. In a Monday alert, FinCEN reminded U.S.-based financial institutions “with visibility into cryptocurrency” and convertible virtual currency, or CVC, to report any activity that could be considered a potential way for Russia to evade sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies. While the U.S. watchdog said that the Russian government using CVCs to evade large scale sanctions was “not necessarily practicable,” financial institutions were obligated to report such activities from Russian and Belarusian individuals named in...
CEXs refuse blanket asset freeze of all Russian users, though questions linger
Centralized exchanges (CEX) and CEOs from companies such as Binance, Coinbase and Kraken have all stated they would only freeze the assets of Russian clients specifically targeted by Western sanctions — not that of everyday Russian users. A few days prior, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, had called for “all major crypto exchanges to block [wallet] addresses of Russians” and “also to sabotage ordinary users [by freezing their assets].” In explaining why he was not preemptively banning all Russians (though, Coinbase is not available in Russia), Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, specifically wrote: “We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise. Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline...
Russian crypto volume across major exchanges plunges by 50%
Data from blockchain-analysis firms show that Russian denominated crypto purchasing and trading on major exchanges have faltered, debunking theories that the country will pivot to digital assets to circumvent sanctions. When Bitcoin rallied over 15% last week, some industry experts attributed the surge to Russians buying cryptocurrency in the face of increasing economic sanctions. This theory seems to be proved false, however, as data from Chainalysis showed that ruble-denominated crypto trading volume was just $34.1 million on March 3, around half of a recent peak of $70.7 million a week ago on Feb. 24. Speaking on the matter of sanctions-fueled crypto purchasing to Bloomberg, Citigroup analyst Alexander Saunders said, “Russian volumes have been relatively small so far, suggesting t...
Anti-war Russians start donating crypto to support Ukraine
While the West is growing increasingly concerned over Russia’s potential use of cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, some Russians are using their Bitcoin (BTC) to help Ukrainian people. Pavel Muntyan, a renowned Russian animation producer and creator of the animated web series “Mr. Freeman,” has called on anti-war Russians to support Ukrainian citizens amid Russia’s ongoing military attack on the country. Muntyan took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce the opening of a cryptocurrency donation address for Russians who want to support Ukrainian people anonymously as Russia has banned its citizens from helping people in Ukraine. On Feb. 27, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office officially warned that any assistance to Ukrainians amid Russia’s “special operation” in the country would be conside...
New York state ramps up blockchain monitoring to enforce sanctions
New York state’s efforts to enforce sanctions against Russia have ramped up a gear with the Department of Financial Services, or DFS, expediting the procurement of additional blockchain analytics technology. According to a statement released Wednesday, the department will use the technology to help detect exposure to Russian individuals and entities subject to federal sanctions, by the virtual currency businesses licensed by the department. NY Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order Feb. 27 directing state agencies to divest from Russian institutions and companies, as well as entities that provide them with support. She said: “New York is proudly home to the nation’s largest Ukrainian population and we will use our technological assets to protect our people and show Russia that w...
US Treasury Dept lists digital currencies as part of effort to sanction Russia’s government
The Treasury Department and reportedly the White House are warning U.S.-based companies and individuals not to facilitate crypto transactions sent to certain Russian nationals and banks. According to regulations from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control scheduled to go into effect on March 1, U.S. residents may not use digital currencies to benefit Russia’s government — including the country’s central bank — as an attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The guidelines equated crypto transactions to “deceptive or structured transactions or dealings” in attempting to evade sanctions. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the department’s actions were aimed at “significantly limit[ing] Russia’s ability to use assets to finance its dest...
EU Commission to remove Russian banks from SWIFT cross-border network
The European Commission announced to remove a number of Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) messaging system, aimed at hindering Russia’s capacity to carry out cross-border payments. In a joint statement released by the European Commission, leaders from France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States highlighted their shared interest in defending Ukraine from the war against Russia: “We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.” While condemning the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s move to lay siege across Ukraine, the EU Commission committed to undertake a series of measures to isolate Russia from the international financial system. President o...
ECB president calls for crypto regulation in response to Russia potentially evading sanctions
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has called on lawmakers to approve a regulatory framework on crypto, hinting at potentially preventing Russia from getting around economic sanctions. Speaking to reporters at an informal meeting of economics and finance ministers on Friday, Lagarde said the European Central Bank would be “decisively and rigorously” implementing the sanctions on Russia imposed by European lawmakers in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. In response to a question on Russia potentially using crypto to evade some of these measures, the ECB president urged action on an existing proposal for a regulatory framework on digital assets. “Whenever there is a ban or prohibition or a mechanism in place to boycott or prohibit, there are always c...
Crypto could bypass President Biden’s ‘devastating’ sanctions on Russian banks and elites: Report
The sanctions announced by United States President Joe Biden in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine did not include cutting the country off from payments on the SWIFT system or cryptocurrency transfers. In a Thursday announcement from the White House, Biden said the U.S. and its allies and partners would be enforcing sanctions aimed at imposing “devastating costs” on Russia due to “Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine.” The U.S. president announced that the country would sever its financial system from Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, as well as impose “full blocking sanctions” on VTB Bank, Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank OJSC, Novikombank, and their subsidiaries. Biden also named several elite nationals who have “enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian state” as part of the ...
Russia to seize retail deposits if sanctions go too far, official warns
In the event of harsh Western sanctions as Russian forces invade Ukraine, retail customers could risk losing their savings. Russians’ savings could be confiscated in response to sanctions against the country, according to Nikolai Arefiev, a member of the country’s Communist Party and vice-chairman of the Duma’s committee on economic policy. The Russian government can potentially seize about 60 trillion rubles ($750 billion) worth of people’s deposits should Western nations decide to block all of Russia’s foreign funds, Arefiev said in an interview with the local news agency News.ru on Monday. “If all the foreign funds are blocked, the government will have no other choice but to seize all the deposits of the population, or 60 trillion rubles in order to solve the situation,” the official st...
Cuba blames unrest on U.S. interference as Joe Biden backs protests
Cuba blamed historic protests that took place over the weekend on U.S. “economic asphyxiation” and social media campaigns by a minority of U.S.-financed counter-revolutionaries, while U.S. President Joe Biden said he stood with the Cuban people. The streets of Havana were quiet on Monday, although there was a heavy police presence. Outages in mobile internet – the only way many Cubans have of accessing the web – were frequent. Chanting “freedom” and calling for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down, thousands of Cubans joined street protests here from Havana to Santiago on Sunday in the biggest anti-government demonstrations on the Communist-run island in decades. At least 80 protesters, activists, and independent journalists had been detained nationwide since Sunday, according to exile...
