The UK's new sanctions package of May 26, 2026, is aimed at the financial infrastructure that Russia uses to circumvent restrictions and support external settlements, including through cryptocurrency.
This was reported to Suspilny by the presidential commissioner for sanctions policy, Vladyslav Vlasyuk.
“This blow from London is directed against two key areas: crypto exchanges that help the aggressor, and the “A7 network”. This is a large-scale financial infrastructure created with the support of the Kremlin to circumvent Western restrictions on the Russian financial sector, finance military purchases, and process oil money,” he noted.
According to Vlasyuk, last year alone, this network conducted operations worth over $90 billion, which is equal to half of Russia's annual military spending.
The following were sanctioned:
- RAPIRA GROUP LLC is a crypto exchange registered in Georgia, focused on the Russian market and associated with sanctioned structures, in particular the A7 ecosystem. The exchange carries out transactions with sanctioned Garantex (Grinex) and Bitpapa for tens of millions of dollars, supports operations in rubles and is integrated with Russian banks under US sanctions, in particular with Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank and Promsvyazbank. Rapira allows the exchange of cryptocurrencies without mandatory verification, actively uses P2P and cash transactions and after the blocking of Garantex became one of the key platforms for the transition of its users. In fact, the exchange plays the role of an alternative crypto-financial infrastructure for the Russian market and potential bypass of sanctions;
- ABCeX (registered in El Salvador as NUEVA CRYPTOLOGIA SOCIEDAD POR ACCIONES SIMPLIFICADA DE CAPITAL VARIABLE (SAS DE CV) with a turnover of $11 billion) is a crypto platform that works with rubles and cryptocurrency and actually serves the Russian market. Through it, you can exchange rubles for crypto assets without classic banking restrictions, including through cash and P2P schemes. The platform is connected to the flows of funds that passed through the sanctioned Garantex (Grinex) exchanges, and looks like one of the platforms that picked up their infrastructure after the restrictions. It has a network of offices in Russia and works through Russian banks, which makes it convenient for fast and less formal financial transactions outside the standard banking system.
- AIFORY LLC is a crypto exchange registered in Georgia, which aims to provide the Russian Federation with the opportunity to circumvent sanctions by making payments in the “ruble-cryptocurrency” format. The platform works as a cryptocurrency exchanger and an intermediary for the corresponding payments. The service is closely related to the sanctioned Garantex (Grinex), since after the closure of the platform a significant number of clients switched to Aifory, as well as to the Iranian platform Abantether, with a turnover of approximately $2 million in crypto.
- as well as the platforms EXMO EXCHANGE LIMITED, ARVIX LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, BITPAPA IC FZC LLC, which are also used to circumvent sanctions.
“The main success of this package is the personal zeroing of the leaders and architects of the shadow crypto market of the Russian Federation. The United Kingdom has added Sergey Mendeleev, co-founder of the sanctioned exchange Garantex and the Exved platform, who has been building schemes to circumvent sanctions for years, to the lists. Together with him, top managers of the A7 group of companies – deputy general directors Igor Gorin and Iryna Hakobyan, as well as an Israeli citizen connected to this network, Liran Cohen, were placed under strict restrictions,” Vlasyuk said.
In addition, according to the Commissioner, sanctions have been imposed on state structures of Kyrgyzstan – Eurasian Savings Bank and Virtual Asset Issuer.
He noted that some of the decisions in the sanctions package are based on materials and proposals that the Ukrainian side, in particular the NBU, transmitted to British partners within the framework of sanctions coordination.
On May 26, the UK government announced sanctions against cryptocurrency and illicit financial networks that Russia uses to circumvent previously announced restrictions.