Vlasiuk: New British sanctions shut down key Russian crypto channels used to evade restrictions

The main achievement of the UK’s new sanctions package targeting Russia’s financial infrastructure is the personal “zeroing out” of leaders in the shadow cryptocurrency market.

This was reported by Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the President’s Representative on Sanctions Policy, in comments to Ukrinform.

“The UK’s new large-scale sanctions package dated May 26, 2026, is aimed at the financial infrastructure that Russia uses to circumvent restrictions and support foreign transactions, particularly through cryptocurrency,” he stated.

According to him, this move by London targets two key areas: cryptocurrency exchanges that assist the aggressor, and the so-called “A7 network”—“a large-scale financial infrastructure created with Kremlin support to circumvent Western restrictions on Russia’s financial sector, finance military procurement, and launder oil money.”

The Commissioner emphasized that last year alone, this network “churned through” over USD 90 billion, which is equal to half of Russia’s annual military spending.

The following entities have been sanctioned:

RAPIRA GROUP LLC is a crypto exchange registered in Georgia, focused on the Russian market, and linked to sanctioned entities, particularly the A7 ecosystem. The exchange conducts transactions worth tens of millions of dollars with the sanctioned entities Garantex (Grinex) and Bitpapa, supports operations in rubles, and is integrated with Russian banks under U.S. sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, and Promsvyazbank. Rapira allows cryptocurrency exchange without mandatory verification, actively uses P2P and cash transactions, and, following the blocking of Garantex, has become one of the key platforms for its users to migrate to. In effect, the exchange serves as an alternative crypto-financial infrastructure for the Russian market and a potential means of circumventing sanctions;

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ABCeX (registered in El Salvador as NUEVA CRYPTOLOGIA SOCIEDAD POR ACCIONES SIMPLIFICADA DE CAPITAL VARIABLE (S.A.S. DE C.V.) with a turnover of $11 billion) is a crypto platform that operates with rubles and cryptocurrency and effectively serves the Russian market. Through it, rubles can be exchanged for crypto assets without traditional banking restrictions, including via cash and P2P schemes. The platform is linked to funds that previously flowed through the sanctioned exchange Garantex (Grinex) and appears to be one of the platforms that took over its infrastructure following the restrictions. It has a network of offices in Russia and operates through Russian banks, making it convenient for fast and less formal financial transactions outside the standard banking system.

AIFORY LLC is a crypto exchange registered in Georgia that aims to enable Russia to circumvent sanctions by processing payments in the “ruble-cryptocurrency” format. The platform operates as a cryptocurrency exchange and an intermediary for such payments. The service is closely linked to the sanctioned Garantex (Grinex), as a significant number of clients shifted to Aifory after the platform’s closure, as well as to the Iranian platform Abantether, which has a turnover of approximately $2 million in cryptocurrency.

as well as the platforms EXMO EXCHANGE LIMITED, ARVIX LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, and BITPAPA IC FZC LLC, which are also used to circumvent sanctions.

“The main success of this package is the personal neutralization of the leaders and architects of Russia’s shadow cryptocurrency market,” Vlasiuk noted.

The United Kingdom has also added Sergey Mendeleev—co-founder of the sanctioned exchange Garantex and the Exved platform, who for years has been building schemes to circumvent sanctions—to its sanctions lists. Along with him, top managers of the “A7” group of companies—Deputy CEOs Igor Gorin and Irina Akopian—as well as Israeli citizen Liran Cohen, who is associated with this network, have been subject to strict restrictions.

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In addition, sanctions have been imposed on Kyrgyz state entities—Eurasian Savings Bank and Virtual Asset Issuer.

“We are grateful to the United Kingdom for the sanctions targeting the financial sector and its infrastructure used by the Kremlin. Some of the decisions in this package are based on materials and proposals that the Ukrainian side, in particular the NBU, provided to British partners as part of sanctions coordination. We will continue to target every transaction and individual that finances aggression against Ukraine or facilitates prohibited transactions,” the presidential adviser concluded.

As reported by Ukrinform, on May 26, the United Kingdom announced the imposition of sanctions against Russia-linked cryptocurrency platforms, banks, and financial networks that were used to circumvent previously imposed restrictions.