US imposes sanctions on Russian companies in virtual payment sector

Today, March 25, the United States of America announced new sanctions against companies from the Russian Federation for their involvement in circumventing current restrictions.

The US Treasury Department reported that.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions against thirteen legal entities and two individuals for activities in the Russian Federation economy's financial services and technology sectors.

These are persons who develop or offer services in the field of virtual assets, which make it possible to evade the payment of US taxes and sanctions.

Some individuals and legal entities facilitated transactions or offered other services that helped already sanctioned organizations evade restrictions.

Treasury Undersecretary for Counter-Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said that Russia has increasingly sought alternative payment mechanisms to circumvent US sanctions and continue to finance the war against Ukraine.

The restricted companies and individuals list

Earlier, the leaders of the "Big Seven" confirmed their commitment to intensifying efforts in the fight against evasion and circumvention of sanctions and export control measures.

The Ministry of Finance noted that all companies sanctioned today either helped create or operate blockchain-based services or provided virtual currency payments in the Russian financial sector, allowing for potential sanctions evasion:

• Crypto Explorer LLC;
• Crypto Explorer DMCC;
• Estonian firm Bitfingroup OÜ;
• B-Crypto Company;
• "Masterchain" company;
• Laitkhaus Company;
• "Atomaiz" company;
• Cypriot company Tokentrust Holdings Ltd;
• "Web3 Technologies" company;
• "TOEP" company;
• Bitpapa company.
• Igor Veniaminovich Kaigorodov and Timur Evgenyevich Bukanov were also sanctioned.

Separately, the US imposed restrictions against Echelon Technologies, Echelon Learning Center, Key Information Systems, Cyber Security Laboratory, and Echelon Project Bureau over technology purchases.

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It should be noted that the American corporation Microsoft sent a letter to Russian companies that from March 20, 2024, it will close access to its cloud products for Russian organizations.

In addition, from March 20, Amazon and Google, following Microsoft, will also close access to their cloud services for Russian companies due to European Union sanctions against the Russian Federation.