The United Kingdom has expanded its sanctions list, adding three individuals and five companies. A statement published on the UK government website says.
The statement notes that,with sanctions continuing to date, Russia has turned to the Kyrgyz financial sector to channel money through opaque financial networks, including through the use of cryptocurrencies. These networks have created a convoluted scheme to evade sanctions imposed by the UK and its partners.
At the center of the new measures is Kyrgyzstan-based Capital Bank, and its director Kantemir Chalbayev, which Russia uses to pay for military goods.
Sanctions also hit the Grinex and Meer cryptocurrency exchanges, the infrastructure behind a new rouble-backed cryptocurrency token A7A5, which has moved $9.3 billion on a dedicated crypto exchange in just four months and is specifically designed as an attempt to evade western sanctions.
«If the Kremlin thinks they can hide their desperate attempts to soften the blow of our sanctions by laundering transactions through dodgy crypto networks — they are sorely mistaken,» Sanctions Minister, Stephen Doughty said.
The sanctions came after the UK Prime Minister, European leaders, President Zelenskyy and President Trump met in Washington this week in pursuit of a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.
The updated sanctions list includes: Grinex LLC, CJSC Tengricoin, Old Vector LLC, Leonid Shumakov, Kantemir Chalbayev, Zhanyshbek uulu Nazarbek, Capital Bank, and Altair Holding SA.
These new sanctions will close the net around illicit money schemes and demonstrate resolve to crack down on international sanctions evasions mechanisms which are helping to bankroll the invasion of Ukraine, wherever they are found, the statement reads.
Earlier, the U.S. Department of the Treasury also sanctioned the Kyrgyz crypto exchange Grinex. Additionally, three senior figures at Garantex — co-founder Sergey Mendeleev, commercial director Aleksandr Mira Serda, and regional director Pavel Karavatsky — along with six companies from Russia and Kyrgyzstan, were added to the U.S. sanctions list.
Among them is Kyrgyz company Old Vector, as well as Russian firms A7, A71, and A7 Agent, which were involved in launching the ruble stablecoin A7A5. According to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Garantex used this token to transfer funds to clients and bypass restrictions.
