The European Union is moving to shut down one of Russia’s last financial escape routes, aiming for a blanket ban on cryptocurrency transactions with the country. The goal is simple: stop Moscow from using digital assets outside the traditional banking system to dodge Western sanctions. Rather than chase after “clones” of already sanctioned Russian crypto platforms, the European Commission is going for a sweeping prohibition, the Financial Times reports.
“To ensure that sanctions achieve their intended effect, the EU is prohibiting interaction with any crypto-asset service provider or the use of any platform for the transfer and exchange of crypto-assets that is based in Russia,” the Commission said.
Brussels is also tightening the screws elsewhere. The Commission has proposed banning exports of certain dual-use goods to Kyrgyzstan, arguing that companies there have been funnelling restricted items — including machine tools and electronics used in weapons and drones — back to Russia. If adopted, the measure would mark the first use of the EU’s new anti-circumvention powers, a centrepiece of its 20th sanctions package introduced in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Imports of commonly used high-priority goods from the EU to Kyrgyzstan have surged by nearly 800% since the start of the war, while exports from Kyrgyzstan to Russia have jumped by 1,200%,” the document states — figures Brussels sees as a red flag.
The Commission’s plan also seeks to block any successors to Garantex, the Russian-linked cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the United States in 2022 for “operating as a cryptocurrency exchange of choice for cybercriminals”. The proposals appear to extend to the Russian payment platform A7 and its rouble-pegged stablecoin A7A5. The US, the UK and the EU have already imposed restrictive measures on the company.
Beyond crypto, Brussels wants to widen the net further — adding 20 more banks to the sanctions list and banning any transactions involving the digital rouble backed by the Central Bank of Russia. The package would also introduce a full prohibition on providing services to vessels carrying Russian oil, cutting off insurance, maintenance and other essential services for tankers.
In a comment to The Ukrainian Week, Ari Redbord, Vice President and Global Head of Policy and Government Affairs at TRM Labs and a former US Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, said that for years Russia had functioned as an illicit “underground” within the crypto ecosystem.
“This is not just a handful of rogue actors,” he said. “It points to a mature, industrialised system built to support data-theft groups, Russian-language darknet markets, high-risk and non-compliant virtual asset service providers, and large-scale sanctions evasion. These networks didn’t spring up overnight. They developed over years — building out infrastructure, brokers, payment rails and service providers designed to keep money moving even after traditional financial channels were cut off.”
The TRM Crypto Crime Report 2026 shows just how fast this industrialised system picked up speed in 2025. The rouble-pegged stablecoin A7A5 and its network of wallets handled around $70 billion in risky flows tied to sanctioned activity. According to the report, this wasn’t a coincidence — the whole setup was deliberately built to dodge restrictions, acting as a tailored financial lifeline for Russia-linked actors when access to dollar and euro clearing systems was increasingly blocked.
TRM also uncovered a cluster of additional Russia-linked platforms launched in Kyrgyzstan with near-identical user interfaces, backend architecture and wallet heuristics to those of Garantex. Among them were ABCeX and the rebranded AEXBit, which showed strikingly similar transaction patterns — including co-spending from a single “hot” wallet, a strong indicator of shared control.
In a similar vein, the Russian payment processor Cryptomus rolled out a parallel service, Heleket, seeded with initial liquidity directly from Garantex. TRM found multiple overlaps: synchronised launch timelines, barely altered service or compliance structures, and shared on-chain infrastructure — all pointing to what was effectively a rebrand rather than a new operation.
Analysts say the wave of 2025 rebrandings appears to be part of a centrally coordinated push to maintain Russia’s access to global crypto liquidity while insulating key operators from sanctions exposure and potential legal fallout.
“Targeted sanctions force regulators and compliance teams to chase individual names in an ecosystem that constantly changes its branding and regenerates,” Ari Redbord told The Ukrainian Week. “A broader ban shifts the focus from who happens to be on the sanctions list today to whether a transaction is connected to a high-risk sanctions-evasion network. That creates clearer rules, strengthens oversight and adds friction at critical access points.”
Still, he cautioned, evasion will not simply disappear. Russian actors are likely to keep leaning on intermediaries, third-country brokers, shell companies and nested services to mask their role in transactions and keep funds moving.
“But tightening controls at the EU’s periphery raises the cost of doing business this way and increases the chances that these flows are flagged at regulated ‘choke points’,” Ari Redbord said. “In a system deliberately engineered to bypass restrictions — and A7A5 is just the latest illustration — putting up structural barriers and setting clear rules is one of the most effective ways to curb its scale.”
