Russians living in Europe are having problems with Revolut again

The service retroactively checks transfers from CIS countries and closes accounts if clients do not explain the origin of the money. What to do?

The neobank Revolut, which in the fall of 2025 shocked Russians living in Europe with the massive disconnection of accounts, has again strengthened supervision over clients with Russian citizenship. As Oninvest noted , this time the service has tightened checks on money transfers from the CIS countries. Moreover, inspections concern already approved operations, often completed a year or two ago.

Revolut’s goal is to identify transactions in which a bank or individual from a third country was only an intermediate link for transferring funds from Russia to a client. Accordingly, citizens of the Russian Federation have to present evidence of the origin of the money - and if this evidence seems unconvincing to Revolut compliance , the account can be blocked and closed.

As a representative of the telegram channel Fintech & Banking EU , which monitors such cases, told Oninvest, at least “dozens of such cases” are known - these are SWIFT transfers, and transfers by card number, and transactions made through Sberbank. Here are just a few specific examples:

• In 2024, a Russian citizen with a residence permit (RP) in France, according to Oninvest, tested a service for transferring money to Europe from Sberbank, which she learned about in one of the telegram channels for emigrants. The Russian bank in its application offered to directly send funds using the card number to European financial institutions. The operation was a success for less than $100; on Revolut’s side it looked like a transfer from a legal entity to an individual. However, after the service requested information about the transaction in January 2026, it was not satisfied with the client’s explanations - and her account was closed.
• A subscriber to the Trip Fare Area telegram channel living in the EU, in January 2026, reported Revolut’s requirement to justify transfers to itself from Kazakhstan from 2024. At the same time, the bank asked to indicate the country of origin of the funds, considering Kazakhstan as a transit link (it is unknown how this proceeding ended).
• Another Russian woman with a French residence permit, according to Oninvest, in 2025 managed to convince Revolut of the legal nature of the funds transferred to her account from Kazakhstan by providing documents confirming that she received a salary from a Kazakh employer and taxes paid on this income.
• A Meduza editor living in the Netherlands received a request from Revolut in early 2026 to explain a transfer he received from an acquaintance in 2024 from a Kazakh bank account. If an explanation is not provided, Revolut has threatened to block the account. After the journalist sent documents about the transaction, the service accepted them for consideration. The bank has not yet reported the results of the audit.

Most likely, due to the inclusion of Russia in the blacklist of jurisdictions that the European Union considers suspicious from the point of view of money laundering and terrorist financing. This decision came into force in January, and experts expected that it would lead to a new wave of mass checks of clients of European banks with Russian citizenship.

As Ekaterina Popova, partner of the ITSWM consulting company, explained to Oninvest, when working with citizens of countries on the blacklist, financial institutions must identify the source of funds, beneficial owners and risks. And if you suspect that sanctions are being circumvented, block the transfer and notify financial intelligence and the central bank of the state where the violation may have occurred. If the client does not explain the origin of the funds, the bank has the right to close his account.

It is worth noting that Revolut specifically warned about a ban on transfers of funds from sanctioned structures in Russia back in August 2025. This was preceded by a leak to the media of information about a transfer scheme from Sberbank, similar to the one due to which the client’s account was closed in the case described above. And already in the fall, the neobank began mass blocking of Russian accounts, provoked by the 19th package of EU sanctions. Revolut founder Nikolai Storonsky, in an interview with journalist Elizaveta Osetinskaya, explained the tough approach as “regulatory pressure.”

Some useful tips were collected by the OhMySwift telegram channel:

• Don't ignore the request.
• Make sure that your explanation does not raise suspicions in the bank that the transfer could be related to sanctions evasion, tax evasion or money laundering.
• Do not falsify documents explaining the translation under any circumstances.
• Answer questions specifically, but briefly: “The more details you provide voluntarily, the more reasons for follow-up questions.”
• Do not provide unnecessary documents - only those that relate to a specific transaction. A larger volume of data provided to the relying party may also provoke new questions and suspicions addressed to you.
• Save a screenshot of your response and the documents you sent.

And, of course, do not provoke Revolut or any other European bank whose client you are into new suspicions: it is better to generally avoid transfers to your account from Russia or the CIS countries.

"Jellyfish"