Financial Times: EU plans to ban all Russian cryptocurrency transactions

The European Commission has proposed banning any transactions with cryptocurrencies associated with Russia, the Financial Times reports, citing a commission document on upcoming sanctions against the Russian Federation.

According to the newspaper, the European Commission proposed taking radical measures instead of trying to ban Russian cryptocurrency platforms.

The commission believes that the introduction of sanctions against individual cryptoasset service providers will likely lead to new organizations emerging in their place.

“To ensure that the sanctions achieve their intended effect, [the EU] prohibits interaction with any cryptoasset service providers or the use of any platforms that allow the transfer and exchange of cryptoassets that are created in Russia,” the document says.

As the FT suggests, the EU proposals are aimed at the Russian payment platform A7, as well as the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5 connected to it.

To adopt new sanctions, they must be supported by all EU member countries. Three of the bloc's 27 countries have expressed doubts and asked for more information, according to three diplomats, the FT writes.

In a commentary to Meduza, Transparency International Russia noted that the European Commission’s new plans mean an acknowledgment that “the previous model does not work”: “As soon as one platform falls under restrictions, a “successor” appears in its place with a new name, a new jurisdiction and the same beneficiaries.”

Transparency also believes that in the case of the A7, “the reaction is largely belated.”

This ecosystem has already adapted to pressure and has shown that it knows how to rebuild. Now the main question is not so much to close A7 as a brand, but to understand where the assets will move, through which new companies and intermediaries the payments will go. If formal decisions are not followed by systemic monitoring of the blockchain and work to track new connections in third countries, the money will simply change routes, but will not disappear.