Against the backdrop of growing global security challenges, experts are increasingly drawing attention to the russian crypto-economy, which effectively circumvents international sanctions thanks to the latest digital tools.
Recently, the Astraea website published an analytical article entitled “russia is one step ahead in the game of ‘find the mole’”, the authors of which were Ukrainian researchers, including financiers and digital security specialists, in particular UMDS experts Oleksandr Chernykh, Tetiana Dmytrenko, Vlad Tsvirkun and a dually qualified English solicitor and Ukrainian lawyer Khrystyna Khanas. The material exposes the shadow crypto-economy of the russian federation, emphasizing that key transactions are carried out with the help of state-owned mining companies, Chinese digital currencies (mCBDC) and North Korean mixers.
Despite the strategic importance of the topic, Ukrainian media rarely cover it, and instead of taking decisive action, the state is engaged in secondary campaigns — in particular, against online content, while turning a blind eye to the activities of crypto exchanges in Kyiv, which annually pump billions of dollars to circumvent sanctions.
The digital war continues — and it is on this front that Russia is gaining an advantage, breaking through sanctions barriers through technology. Back in February, the issue was raised at the international conference “Social Justice and the Digital Economy,” and recently the BBC partially addressed it. However, this is only the “tip of the iceberg.”
“Krystyna Khanas and other experts regularly publish new analytical materials. But these are read mainly by volunteers, individual lawyers and researchers. So far, this topic has not gained wide publicity, although the threats are systemic and large-scale,” Oleksandr Chernykh comments on the situation.
The materials of the article are available at the link:
Translation into Ukrainian — on the BORG Expert resource:BorgExpert – Росія будує тіньову фінансову систему
The most important question remains open: why haven’t effective crypto sanctions been introduced yet? Although the official answer sounds like “we don’t know how,” in reality it lies in the political plane: there are sanctions against banks and the agricultural sector, but there are none against cryptocurrencies. And this is a systemic error.