19th package of sanctions: EU against dirty Russian crypto

The European Union presented the 19th package of sanctions - and, finally, for the first time, seriously took up schemes with dirty Russian cryptocurrency. Now the ban includes transactions on crypto platforms that are used to circumvent restrictions and, among other things, to fuel the Russian military machine.

Transparency International Russia has been consistently pointing to these schemes for several years:

• 2023: From Moscow-City with Crypto - we showed how the cryptocurrency cash-out pipeline works from Moscow City.

• 2023: a study on the black market of “nominalities” in crypto-fiat services - we analyzed how dummies and companies massively handed over their documents for cashing out and bypassing KYC.

• 2024: Unraveling the Web - showed how, through fictitious offshore companies and formal checks, rubles were converted into dollars and euros.

• 2025: Evolution of Garantex: From a crypto platform to an international sanctions evasion network - they proved that the sanctioned Garantex did not disappear, but was reborn into Exved and Grinex and continued to pay for the purchase of equipment and parts for the army.

We are pleased to see that our advocacy efforts are bearing fruit and that European sanctions policies take into account the vulnerabilities we have highlighted.

At the same time, it is important to emphasize: both our investigations and the EU sanctions are aimed exclusively at those who are behind the war and profit from it. This is not about blocking the accounts of ordinary people or civil society, which needs secure and alternative ways to transfer money due to bureaucratic restrictions. There is only one task - to block the gray channels through which the Russian military-industrial complex receives resources to continue the war against Ukraine.