Russia could start using crypto to evade international sanctions after the recent war on Ukraine, with many of the countries across the world warning Russia of imposing harsh sanctions. However, crypto can provide a way out so let’s read more in today’s latest cryptocurrency news.
Russia invaded Ukraine after Putin conducted a “special military operation” and the International response was quite swift with the country now facing harsh sanctions from all around the world. The European Union imposed sanctions aimed at Russia while the US President denounced the invasion as a “premeditated attack” and announced a new set of sanctions aimed at Russia’s banks and enterprises so now Russia could start using crypto to evade these sanctions.
Germany froze the approval of the Nord Stream 2 gas project that is designed to increase the flow of Russian gas to the EU continent and the UK also imposed punishing sanctions that can devastate Russia’s economy and target Putin’s inner circle. So far, the international community held back from the UK’s demand to bar Russia from SWIFT international payments network but BTC and other cryptocurrencies could provide Putin with a way to evade international sanctions. Caroline Malcolm, the Head of International Policy at Chainalysis explained:
“As with the traditional financial system, Russia can leverage cryptocurrency to evade the sanctions that are being put in place in response to their invasion of Ukraine.”
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She also added that crypto doesn’t provide Russia with a silver bullet for evading sanctions:
“As in the traditional financial system, the cryptocurrency ecosystem can put measures in place to identify transactions from identified sanctioned entities.”
The Biden administration warned that crypto-assets described as digital assets by the Treasury Department can undermine the US broader sanction regime. The Treasury Department said in a report:
“These technologies offer malign actors opportunities to hold and transfer funds outside the financial system. They also empower our adversaries seeking to build new financial and payment systems intended to diminish the dollar’s global role.”
North Korea also financed its ballistic missile programs using crypto and a number of countries like the US, Australia, Japan, and the UK all imposed sanctions on North Korea that employed hackers to steal more than $400 million in crypto from exchanges. North Korea has an active crypto mining program like BTC and Monero. As far as 2018, businesses in Iran were able to use BTC and other cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions imposed by President Trump:
“We chose crypto because sanctions could not block the accommodation payments made by our clients.”
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