pro-Russian groups raising crypto funds to evade US sanctions
A report revealed that few Russian groups are raising cryptocurrencies for paramilitary operations & also supporting to bypass the sanctions of western countries.
Russia is now a good region for the crypto sector because of the international financial & trade sanctions on this country, after its military attacks on Ukraine. Before February 2022, the Russian Central Bank was totally against cryptocurrency circulation but the Russian finance ministry was in favor of crypto adoption under new precise regulatory policies. Now the Russian government, Central Banks & Finance Ministry are all working together to bring crypto into international payment systems.
On 3 October, CNBC reported that crypto intelligence firm TRM Labs’ study revealed that some Russian groups are raising funds in crypto assets to help the Russian government to fight against international trade & financial sanctions.
Chris Janczewski, Chief executive officer of TRM Labs, said that pro-Russian groups raised around $400k worth of crypto assets.
Blockchain intelligence firm analyzed a combination of publicly available crypto wallet addresses and also cross-checked details via some related websites to find out Russian-linked groups. However, it is not confirmed whether these Russian groups are backed by the Russian government directly but it is confirmed that these groups are working to support the Russian government.
These groups are taking the help of popular messaging platform Telegram so that people can donate crypto funds easily to help & support the Russian-affiliated militia groups and combat training at locations near the Ukrainian border.
The head of legal and government affairs at TRM Labs, Ari Redbord, said that the study is showing that under such critical situations crypto playing a role only as a payment tool.
“I think an interesting part of this story is that a crypto is just a form of payment in these cases.”
Further TRM labs head said that crypto can be used to move funds and it is a good example of a cryptocurrency use case but also a bad example can be seen in this research, where a country is getting crypto funding support to fight against Ukraine.
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