Topic: Russian individuals are using crypto to bypass sanctions (Read 819 times)

Ser, it's actually Bitcoin that will be required for the survival of some countries. "Bitcoin" is merely a natural evolution of technology, like the invention of the printing-press, the telephone, or the internet.

There are other ways, and forms of usage, that "Bitcoin" can be of use to evade sanctions. One of them is to arbitrage a commodity like oil. If Bitcoin's price is high enough, Russia can use their crude oil and gas to power Bitcoin mining farms and sell the coins for profit, OR keep them to use to trade with other countries with other commodities.

By what signs did you see Russia's transition to cryptocurrency? I am sure that there will be no improvement in the use of cryptocurrency for the citizens of Russia. The Putin regime is now taking all possible measures to prevent the flight of capital from Russia, which will inevitably happen anyway. Now Russians are massively buying real estate in Turkey in order to protect their capital from sharp inflation in their country, and even in order to obtain a passport of a Turkish citizen. There is a law there that if a foreign citizen has purchased real estate in Turkey worth more than 250 thousand dollars, then within three months he has the right to obtain citizenship of this country. From Russia, many will now go abroad, because over time this country will more and more turn into another North Korea.
Of course, some Russian citizens will try to protect themselves from the problems that arose after Russia's military aggression in Ukraine with the help of cryptocurrency. But in general, the population will sharply become poorer and this will not contribute to the strengthening of the cryptocurrency in this country.

The sanctions received by Russia will certainly have an impact on the economy in the country and the transfer to digital currency carried out by Russia will certainly make bitcoin indirectly have a very positive impact on the survival of bitcoin considering that Russia is a large country on the European continent.it would be a very good thing for the survival of bitcoin if the country had shifted to the crypto world, and we as miners also really hope that this adoption can make the bitcoin price stable again as soon as possible

There were enough reports that they have move to China or routing everything just to get away or bypass sanctions.

Or even bolder approach, turning crypto into gold. So they are getting bolder and sophisticated on their approach. Maybe the Russian government really did prepare for a long war or even anticipated sanctions will come on all front and could have also laid out to circumvent it.

I would like to hear the opinions of the Russians on this matter, how successfully they manage to circumvent both international sanctions and the prohibitions of their government when working with cryptocurrency. But social networks are blocked in Russia, reliable information about the course of the war of conquest in Ukraine and its consequences is hushed up and hidden, a massive attack from the media continues to be carried out in order to further zombify the population.
Apparently, the people of Russia do not write anything because they are afraid that they might be tracked. This is the result of Putin's massive support. Well, they wanted it themselves. And this is just the beginning...

any sanctions are affecting mostly poor & middle class Russians living outside Russian. As one poster mentioned, goods are already smuggled into Russia through Belarus before the war started anyway, so @Stompix, I don't think Boeing care if they sell parts to a German or Czech middleman that end up in Russia.

It's actually Europeans, Eurasians and North Africans that will be affected the most by all this. Ukrainian grain and rape seed oil is a big supplier to all those regions, and this affects cattle farming too (hence the price of most meat products will rise all over those regions, and across the rest of the world to some extent)

The Europeans will get a triple slap, as not only do they rely on Ukrainian agricultural exports, but also on those from Russia, plus Russian crude oil and gas are relied on heavily in Europe. Ironically, the bureaucrats who wrote the sanctions are aware, and exempted Russian oil and gas. That might not last long if Putin continues to demand payment in rubles.


The rest of the world aren't following the sanctions anyway, so this ultimately could affect Europeans most. Strange strategy for beating Putin; leave europeans cold, poor and starving while the rest of the world looks on in bemusement, and China and Russia start to cut deals to decrease US/EU influence. India and Saudi Arabia have done so already, Dollar settlement in trade is being supplemented by rubles and yuan deals. If the US threatened action against India or Saudi Arabia, use of military is their only credible/effective option.

Most exchanges are neutral with this conflict as supposedly crypto is for all. For now, I believe, most exchanges will just wait for the government's restrictions towards crypto. If not, they will continue to cater these people, no matter what their origin is. So with this situation, I think, some of these Russians really are taking advantage of this opportunity. We can't blame these people because they need to find a way how to secure their assets.

binance looks like an exchange that does not have a legal team, I commented on this in a past post when someone said that binance would not follow these government guidelines, I wondered:

if binance wouldn't follow what governments banned then what was the point of them asking for KYC? would they be following laws from where?

Today I see that they have already changed their minds and are already following what the governments have determined. this makes it seem that binance has no legal team and does things without thinking. even I get scared

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about using bitcoin to circumvent sanctions, well i don't see how this can be a good thing for bitcoin and the whole cryptocurrency market, for me it just harms the cryptocurrency market i know russian citizens are not to blame for their government's evil but laws are laws and we have to respect when all governments impose sanctions against russia they are doing it to pressure the russian government to change its posture, but using bitcoin to circumvent these sanctions is something that does not benefit bitcoin, on the contrary it only harms bitcoin

post-sanctions received by Russia may or may not have a slight impact on the economy in the country due to the sanctions received from the impact of the war between the two countries.and the shift of some individuals to the crypto world is certainly a good capital for the survival of bitcoin considering that Russia is a country that is so big in the world. the European continent and slowly in the future not only groups of individuals who will use crypto but the wider community will also do this. We really hope that the topic above is not just a discourse and can be realized as soon as possible

Russia never got a renounced exchange until now and this will have a strong impact on their decision to adopt cryptocurrency at this stage in the war. Binance announcement will be a strong warning to others, I also think  exchanges cant take care of all the transaction in Russia that runs into 100 of millions, except they stay in cryptocurrency for trade without Fiat at all.

And who keeps 10,000 euros on a crypto exchange account?
I only use crypto exchanges without KUS and send no more than 1000 dollars at a time there. After the withdrawal of the purchased coins, I again send assets for 1000 dollars.
Even these services are much better than the centralized crap from binance
https://changelly.com/
https://changenow.io/
https://fixedfloat.com/

Binance has now placed a stick in the wheel to accounts belonging to Russians or to people residing in the country, extending the scope from selected target names, to anyone with over 10K € equivalent in crypto. This is in light if the fifth wave of sanctions to the country.

According to an announcement made yesterday, the following changes apply to the accounts belonging to Russian nationals or residents:

-   Restrictions apply to all Binance accounts beloging to russian nationals, residents in russia, or companies in russia, with over 10K € in assets on the Exchange.

-   They will need to provide proof of residency (unclear to me if all or just >10K €).

-   Their accounts will only allow them to make withdrawls, and no longer accept deposits nor trading. This applies to spot, futures (giving them 90 days to close their possitions), wallets, staking and earnings.

- Accounts for Russian nationals or residents, with < 10K € will be able to opérate without the above restrictions.

The announcement could be expressed in a clearer manner in my opinion, and it seems to me somewhat messy.

I would expect the practice to further extend to other Exchanges, and who knows if even lowering the 10K bar.

Well, it is no secret to anyone that the Russian high command has been using cryptocurrencies and BTC for a long time, that now it is on the table for those who had not had the benefit is something else, something like that for people who are from the town and who it was difficult for them to go buy any item to be able to eat or survive, because I admire the ability they have in that country to not have lost total and absolute control, I think that those people in Russia their only way out is cryptocurrencies and for me always it will be in Russia and in any other country in the world.

Russia is basically going for the short term solutions and that is not a bad thing when you are a whole nation in war because during the war times you could have radical short term solutions. In the end, we are going to have something that will be a bit more at ease and people will like it for sure.

What we need to realize is that the best thing we can do right now is to keep the sanctions against Russia, keep putting more money in renewable energy which will not only allow nations to be energy independent and not need sources from Russia but also it would help the climate as well, then hope that the war doesn't go for long and threaten Russia with these.

As for payments in roubles, they made export companies to sell 80% of foreign currency got with export revenue before plans on selling anything for roubles. So the difference between 80% and 100% is not so big. Yes, it helps with the rouble rates but it is far from market situation.

Main problem for government for bypassing sanctions with crypto is not only that it can destroy the money value of rouble, it can be hardly done as Russia is a big country with a huge import volume. Even if it can get enough crypto for trading (which is hard by itself as all amount of crypto holded by Russians is just about 100-130 billions of USD according prime minister Mishustin) it is impossible to import such volumes of goods into the country unnoticed.

To overcome the ongoing sanction people find the usage of cryptocurrency a way, but the same can't be used by the government which will destroy the money value of ruble. There is not much of value destruction with ruble and the recent plans of Putin to receive payments in Rubles for oil and gas will once again boost the value. Very few cryptocurrency exchange have given access for the Russian residents. Russia is looking for a source to overcome the ongoing situation and it doesn't look like a long term plan.

To be honest I don't think they want a rouble to be better and bigger. I think they just want to keep a control to manipulate with it as much as they can. As for nowadays when foreign currencies exchange is made harder and is not available for most Russian residents the rate can be any — trading volume in pairs with USD and EUR is down ten times.

I do agree that it shouldn't really be a shocking result, after all we are talking about ruble needing to get better and bigger, which could be done via the fact that Russians asking everyone to use ruble. This could be for main things like oil and gas, but it could be done for everything.

This would make ruble a lot more stable and a lot more liked by people as well. I am not guessing that it would be a bad result if they ignored crypto all together and focused on just ruble itself. Which is a proof that they do have a chance other than ruble when working. By the looks of it, ruble is not getting any worse neither, so it shouldn't really matter to them.

Why? To keep ruble exchange rate relatively stable they hardly would like to get new competitors for him. So there are much more options what to do and previously they didn't want to adopt decentralized currencies.

And as for bureaucratic elite they use cryptocurrencies like they like even without any official adoption, so they just don't really need any changes with that.


It's more complex. If we talk about gadgets then sanctions would work not so good, but if we talk about airplanes, gas turbines, trains and other technically sophisticated single devices then sanctions will probably work good enough.

I would also believe that there are nations with no sanctions to Russia that can get the phones, or any other item. It could literally become like a business. X nation that has no sanctions from or to any nation, could get anything from any nation that Russians want, then sell it to Russians and Russians could use that. Which is a great way to circumvent all of this sanction stuff to be fair, even gas and oil could be dealt the same way, would make that nation a lot richer.

I would have to guess that west would have a problem with that and could create some problems and tensions, but what are they going to do? Sanction another nation? It doesn't work as well as they imagined from what we have seen.

After so many sanctions imposed by the UK and US, Russia had only the option of adopting cryptocurrency.

Even if you need to get a new smartphone besides the way of paying for it (and bitcoin can help to bypass sanctions this way) you need a way of getting it. And if it is prohibited to send it into Russia then first step with paying for it will not work anyway. So bypassing sanctions is a complex problem. Goverments which implement sanctions can work on not to let to import prohibited goods.
If you want to buy something from the country which is not supporting sanctions you can use or some of currencies of countries which are not supporting sanctions also, you can use gold, you can use barter etc. China is a neighbor country and there is no need to bypass sanctions with bitcoin, there are many more options.

So if someone wants to get some new gadget for his own it is not a real problem for the goverments which implement sanctions. And if there is a large volume merchandise imports they can prevent it from the areas they control and can't for the countries which are not supporting sanctions.

Russians use cryptocurrencies to avoid sanctions from various countries, Russia can indeed avoid sanctions using cryptocurrencies because of its dentrelized nature, but Russia must have its own obstacles because binance has blocked a number of Russian clients, can Russia avoid sanctions if they switch to crypto currency,??

Well from every point of view it is clear that the sanctions are destroying Russia from its economic entrails and this is something that Putin knows and that everyone knows, the exits and solutions for the Russians are obviously BTC, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, while they have Internet service I think they can defend themselves, and this causes a business model in many, especially for the Exchanges that allow Russian clients, since it is like a monopoly that continues to receive money and in any crisis it is difficult to see solutions , but when they find it, that is where everything begins, so all is not lost for the Russians, they still have very good tools to get ahead.

If that was the case then we would see a HUGE increase in monero as well. We were in a good bull run and some coins increased more than others as usual, wave must have been hitting right there. If the problem was KYCless, then how could you withdraw fiat to your bank account?

I am pretty sure you couldn't do that, you need to give your KYC in order to get money, if the only point is to make sure that you can buy crypto without showing your KYC then you could already do that inside Russia anyway. This is why it is clearly obvious that we are not talking about wave increase in price somehow related to Russians bypassing sanctions, doesn't look like there is a relevance there.

It's a difficult time, people are running away, ...but business is booming in Russia!
The fact that one business is booing is hardly an indicator for the entire country, and you know that very well, the fact that people are leaving with their money in a suitcase and are buying property abroad means one single thing, they fear that the money and real estate in Russia will be worthless after that.
How many times in 40 years does Russia/USSR have to collapse bankrupt in order to finally get it?

And btw, about that booming, we had a discussion about Russian technology, I'll bump that topic with the latest news about it, it would have been funny if it wasn't pathetic.


Yeah right, Bitcoin will definitely work, Satoshi himself will materialize grab a gun, and shoot all the executives from Boeing and Airbus unless they sell airplane parts to Russia, then he will go to Maersk as they need a company to actually ship that, then to TSMC for the chips, then...
You're forgetting one thing that Bitcoin wasn't designed for, be capable of forcing somebody to deal with you even if they don;t want.

As for Cuba, it's only the US who has sanctions and not covering food and medicine against them...now cut from this image all the other countries that are sanctioning Russia:

Individuals in Russia can avoid the sanctions if they choose to operate using Bitcoin. Russia as a nation doesn't have any other way to avoid sanctions other than using their own currency to conduct commerce, which they have openly said is the plan with countries they deem unfriendly. It used to be that Russia and other countries would use USD as a reserve currency. That isn't the case anymore. If they wanted to use Bitcoin to avoid sanctions outright, they needed to increase their reserves to the tune of billions in bitcoin/crypto years ago. They can't start after the sanctions are already in place with Rubles in the ground and expect to be successful.

Free for everybody to get involved with and it is indeed the true meaning of decentralization and its true that there's nothing we could do about it since anyone could freely make use on that particular
usage or utility which does really proves out that it is indeed helpful on these kind of situations on saving up themselves with those sanctions been implied.I could not blame nor point fingers
that they are doing the wrong thing which it is really just normal for someone on finding alternatives around and crypto would be the nearest option to that.

This has been known for a while, and I have to say it is a good win for crypto all around. Just because you do not like some people (or maybe you like them) doesn't mean that they shouldn't be able to use bitcoin. If that was the case, then we would have centralization.

You need to accept that people who buy and sell drugs, hell even terrorists WILL use crypto, that is what decentralization brings. But that also means that we are using a currency that nobody controls and that is the decentralization part that makes it so beautiful. I personally love the current situation and I would love to let the Russians overcome the sanctions easily, to show the power of bitcoin.

What about btc and other cryptos? Why waves is the only crypto you mentioned here. hmm? Is this a special shill post? Or maybe you are holding some of this coin but you can be right about the wallet part. Metamask and other dex wallet that we know are not really a true dex, they are showing their colors lately. They are now doing actions to prevent the users on the restricted list from doing a transaction.

Maybe this waves wallet can be a great alternative to them. Cryptos are on their way to the bull run so they are going to increase even without the help of the Russians. Waves is one of the top coin so it can surely be included in bull.

Of course they have, that's the whole point, its all or nothing.

Bitcoin was designed to bypass the State, or a coalition of States. You cannot have "good coins" and "bad coins", that is an artifact of fiat (or society). If you have an issue with "bad guys", go after the bad guys and leave money alone.

"Freezing assets" is exactly the kind of thing Bitcoin was designed against. The thing is, certain rulers like to use it for themselves, but not let the people use it. For example, prior to this war, Russia was simply telling miners that it was ok as long as you sell ALL your bitcoins to the central bank of Russia... So, no. Does someone remember when the USA decreed that no one could possess gold and had to sell it all to the State? Yeah...

If Putin can use it to buy weapons to China, so can the common Russian citizen use it to send money for Ukraine defense. Its both or none.

There is no good money or bad money, there is money, State hands off.

Oh, did you already forgot when the State of Canada wanted to freeze assets to people sending funds to protesters?

Bitcoin will work, with or without the State supporting or blocking it. It was designed to work independently, that's the whole p2p thing, the REAL p2p thing which is wallet to wallet, no middlemen, no exchanges, no banks, and no State.

You say they are purchasing properties in the middle east? Prove it and go seize those properties. Leave money alone. You can try but you will fail, sanctions never work. Ask Cuba, etc...

This post was written from a "sanctioned" country, we are still oppressed, and more poor, thank you very much...

That's what's probably going to happen and it's going to be difficult for the Russians to convert those cryptocurrencies that they're using when they finally need to use it because they're going to still need fiat to continue functioning as a country and as an economy and I don't think that they're not doing something that's permanent.

Could the $WAVES pump because.of the Russians trying to by pass the KYC of exchanges?

I've not seen how fast the growth of the price since last month. It did surpass its ATH already. I'm thinking they are moving to Waves because its  hybrid wallet with exchange in it that doesnt ask KYC. With WAVES, its all they need in a one stop platform.

It's possible but they will find it a bit challenging on doing a cross border transaction, though there might be some other means for them.  I read on the news that they're banned from trading on exchanges, but if they're bypassing sanctions using crypto, I think the major issues they're going to face is that they can only transact on platform that accept crypto as method of payment or deposits.

Perhaps they could ask a relative, a friend, or any other people they know for a little favor of conversion of fiat to crypto to jump around the restrictions of the central exchangers. That way, they could utilize their money amidst the sanctions imposed to them. For sure, most people in Russia know someone outside the country whom they trust on to do them a little thing for the sake of survival.

Although I don't really know how long they will be able to do this. Because after all, people have their own lives to attend to. Hopefully, the conflict between the two countries will be over soon so that the sanctions would be lifted and the innocent citizens lives will come back to normal.

The aspect of it that remains a mystery is when the investstor are selling off their crypto assets start for real estate business in UAE, why converting crypto asset into real estate when fiat is there remain questionable.


Infact UAE is fast growing in cryptocurrency ever since  the sanction placed on Russia, just as it is well known as the center for commerce.

Russia invaded Ukraine, and now the sufferers are Russian people and the Ukrainian common people. Till date no news came out mentioning the death of officials in the war. Soldiers and the common public have lost their lives. During the initial days of the war, Russian billionaires made talks with Putin, but nothing good happened out of it. Slowly the sanctions made people suffer more. By the time cryptocurrency helped to withstand the situation.

There were requests from Ukraine to stop the service of cryptocurrency Exchanges, so to make the sanction more effective. Most of the Exchanges ignored and thats how Russian people are now living. This increase in the usage of bitcoin resulted in the growth of bitcoin irrespective of the war.

A lot of people already knew that’s what they would do. When they have already declared Bitcoin legal in their country, what do you think would happen? They did that so that they will be able to circumvent the sanctions that were being put in place against them. So, it is not a surprise to me that it is all happening.

Even if it wasn’t a legal asset in their country, they (Russian citizens) are still going to make use of it, because you don’t need the government approval before you can make use of Bitcoin since it is decentralized. Most people there now would be see Bitcoin as a good option for them to hold now that their fiat is losing so much of value.

Russia is currently receiving sanctions from various countries in the world and Europe, if this is true, it is already starting to do cryptocurrency in an effort to improve and stabilize the economy in its country, of course this can indirectly increase bitcoin growth, especially regarding bitcoin prices on the market. global stocks and we really hope that this will actually be fully realized

This was obviously going to happen, with such stringent sanctions in place in almost each and every sphere from banking to social networking, there is just crypto sphere left which has unanimously decided not to put any sanctions against Russia. All the exchanges, mixers and wallets are still open to Russian people so there is only one legitimate way Russians can move their money, I think this can prove to be really good for crypto world who knows the price of bitcoin might be rising due to this reason only.

Personally I think that the events that have played out would only push the government and the central banks to put more effort towards regulation of the cryptocurrency market. They wouldn’t push it aside, because they know that if they do push aside, it continues.

Bitcoin is not something that you push aside, it doesn’t stop running. Look at countries where the government has banned cryptocurrency, people still find a way to buy and sell and also use it for transactions. And in that case it means the worse for the government since they wouldn’t be able to at least keep track of some of the transactions that happening in the cryptocurrency market.

In short, I’ll tell you how Russians buy crypto wallets or expensive phones (oversized goods).
The buyer sends the cryptocurrency to the guarantor in Poland or Belarus, and the guarantor sends the goods along the route Poland-Belarus-Russia. It is even easier with China and Kazakhstan.

Russians have been banned or restricted especially for using crypto currency. Their normal use may be disrupted here but those who have assets in their personal wallet can easily solve this problem with the help of someone from another country(P2P). However, those who have assets in the exchanges may have difficulty. Remember that till today Russia have good friends like china so everything is possible.

The problem with the p2p platforms is that you need to find other people willing to give you crypto in a period where the only method to take your money out is crypto. This means that there will be plenty of people who are willing to do it only if you pay them a huge difference. What is 43k today, could be 50k there and what is 38k tomorrow could be 45k there when you want to buy.

So, if you have crypto and you are in p2p of Russian market and want to sell some crypto then you could make a good amount but when you want to buy, they will use the sanctions as a reason to charge you a bit more than what you should be paying just because they know you are in desperate need.

Since the western food companies were disbanded, I see it as an ideal option if the community is now back to improve the local food and beverage industry and then develop it into an opportunity to create new businesses. The number of large western companies such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola has resulted in its own losses, but again in the eyes of entrepreneurs, this is an allowance to establish a company that can become a local competitor among people who are no longer dependent on foreign products.

They are  saying that,now Russian situation made them to use bitcoin as the foremost for the transaction to the near people.The millionaire’s in Russia can buy huge amount of cryptocurrency.Because they will be whale easily into the crypto.Mainly to the bitcoin,they will became a bitcoin whale before the war with their money.

Not all Crypto-currency Exchange are allowing Russia and it's citizens to bypass the sanction, but definitely there would be some agency that would use this opportunity to make gains for themselves.

Although I don't think innocent citizens should suffer because of Russia, but regardless, Crypto-currency should not be used as a medium to escape bam illegally.

It is not a secret that the implications of cryptocurrencies will be used to overcome regulations and restrictions and will be used for a global trade without restrictions and now that all the central banks and the government are aware of the untapped power of a decentralized currency, what do you think will be the implications in the long term when they are planning to regulate the entire cryptocurrency space.

It is a very difficult time in Russia right now. Some people choose to run away because they already have a lot of money. But this will end sadly, because other people will take away their business in Russia, and they will live in other countries as tourists.
I will tell you my opinion, despite everything that happens, there is a lot of money in Russia. I have a business in Russia, and the problem is not in finding investments, but in the fact that all industries are busy. So now there are a lot of opportunities for business in Russia. I can write you many examples, for example about McDonald's. The food in the European McDonald's is very different from the food in the Russian McDonald's, because countries have different requirements for food in public catering. Many companies use palm oil for food production, although it is banned or very strict in Europe.
Many cafe and restaurant owners are very happy about this and will take a share of the business from foreign companies.

These are mere allegations, The last time I checked bitcoin is still anonymous to an extent, the oil that is claimed to be means of exchange is not also virtual. If it is exported we can monitor the delivery. I saw on several television station the speculation that came after the sanction on bank and the idea of cryptocurrency as option. I guess this was responsible for this rumour.

That is sort of the big issue. The issue isn't their ability to initiate a bitcoin transaction, the issue is exchanging that bitcoin into fiat. Most of the off/on ramps are exchanges that use SWIFT to send customers their funds in the form of fiat currency.

Needless to say, completely evading these sanctions will not be an easy task for Russia. However, I have a feeling they will find a way.

Not only Russians but pretty much every person will be able to bypass the middleman and their restrictions if he is using the P2P trading.
Russians were able to bypass the sanctions since there was no middleman to restrict them.
There were rumors that someone even bought a car with bitcoin which is indeed surprising.
So as far as we have bitcoin, we will keep hearing such news. People have finally realized the benefits of bitcoin.

I have recently read about this.  The thing about having a breakthrough technology that allows for such freedoms as bitcoin does is there's of course going to be some negative aspects due to it being as such, but I think it's important for people to remember that the good outweighs the bad.  I of course don't love the fact that Russians are being able to use it to hide from sanctions, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with bitcoin. 

You have to wonder how many of them are using Monero or Zcash, as of course these are true privacy coins.

I'm a part of an activist group that works to help Ukraine in this war, and during the first days there was an idea by some fellow activists to call for boycotting Bitcoin because Russians can use cryptos to evade sanctions. I stepped in fast, saying that cryptos can't take the blame for those who use them, and that the Ukrainian state is actually pro-crypto, and millions of dollars (it was millions then, and it's at least 60 million now) are raised in cryptos to help the army, so the idea was, thankfully, abandoned for good. It's important to keep in mind that it's not Bitcoin's fault that Russians might use it to bypass sanctions. It's instead important to focus on limiting the options of Russians doing that, and it's actively being done by the West thanks to centralized crypto exchanges complying with the policies.

And the most obvious fact, is sanctions are pulling even more wealth from Russia, people moving money out of Russia and buying properties in foreign countries, properties that they will have to pay taxes on every year, draining more and more their pockets. You're witnessing a full capital flight with money leaving the country at insane levels and you still think that the sanctions are a joke, lol.

This capital flight is proof of how much trust the people that have some money in Russia have in the future economy, if they would have had even a bit they would have used that money to buy property there or invest in companies that would replace the western ones that are fleeing, something like building Elbrus chips, but the reality is that everyone flees faster than rats from a sinking ship, the water is barely leaking and the rats are already onshore. What happened to Make Russia Great Again? Still in beta testing?


What lifeline?
Russia can still get paid as the contracts are saying, in euros via banks, there is no need for bitcoin payments as there is no ban on purchasing gas there is nor restrictions in payments. This is just Russia trying to flex their muscle and trying to scare the markets to raise the prices, but the contracts are long in in place, where it says euros till 2030 it will be euros till 2030!

Wealthy Russian citizens have exchanged their money for cryptocurrencies and are buying up real estate in the UAE and Turkey. It is perfectly legal in the UAE. You officially change cryptocurrencies in this country and open a bank account, and then buy real estate.
https://iz.ru/1310195/2022-03-24/kolichestvo-sdelok-s-nedvizhimostiu-v-dubae-vyroslo-v-chetyre-raza
In Turkey, the exchange is done through intermediaries and Russians also buy apartments and houses.
Prices have also risen in Georgia and Armenia, and housing rent has risen in price.

This is how the sanctions of Europe and America help the economies of other countries

No matter how much they try to discredit bitcoin by talking about it in a negative context, they do the opposite. People only learn more about the fact that no one can stop you from using bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. That you are the only one who owns the coins. This is probably the best promotion for bitcoin right now. I would like to say that in Russia, because of sanctions and bans in the country, people are using stable coins more than bitcoin.

I think before the war started, crypto sat in a sort of gray zone where people were more ambivalent towards it. As this war drags on it is going to fall under greater spotlight, Russians have been squeezed but crypto gives them a way out. While I have nothing against the average Russian who is against war, the only way financial restrictions will be effective is if they have no outlets to get their money into USD/Euros. I predict there will be a lot more political activity soon in America/Europe to restrict it's usage as it's used for countering sanctions.

What we re witnessing today is actually Bitcoin in action though of course it could not be avoided that maybe there are those in powers who don't like that Bitcoin can be utilized by the sanctioned country to get away to some extent the effects of the sanctions. In their eyes, Bitcoin has been providing a lifeline to Russia and with the recent announcement that the country can be accepting Bitcoin for its oil and gas, the more Bitcoin can be on the limelight and yes people who don't understand Bitcoin may look at it in a bad light. Still, the USA and the European Union including the UK can work on the sanctions with centralized platforms dealing with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency but beyond that it would be impossible to impose any sanction on those which are decentralized especially P2P.

The scale is definitely unknown. But let me share you something; https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/135716/number-of-bitcoin-whales-spikes-as-sanctions-on-Russia-bite . As you can see from this article that it shows the number of wallets with a lot of bitcoin (1k+ wallets) increased a lot.

And this is just wallets with so much in it, imagine all those rich Russians who did like 100 bitcoin per wallet and got plenty of addresses to hide their wealth as well. So, all in all there are "some" cases that proves that it is happening, we do not know the scale like you said, but we know that it has happened when the first sanctions where heard.

She didn't present any concrete evidence of how this is happening. I have no doubts that there are such cases, but the scale and the precise activity is not really known. I seriously doubt that it is possible on a large scale - it's hard to buy billions of dollars worth of BTC for a sanctioned oligarch, because all accounts tied to them are being monitored, and even the general AML laws would be a major obstacle in this situation.

Presenting Bitcoin as a major financial factor is simply wrong, so this lady is definitely pushing her anti-crypto agenda.

I can't get past the paywall for that article, but here are two articles originating from Business Insider covering the same story:

https://news.yahoo.com/russian-individuals-companies-using-crypto-162056961.html
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/russia-crypto-putin-no-evidence-cryptocurrencies-evade-sanctions-senate-sberbank-2022-3


I share the same view as some of the people quoted in those articles, cryptos could be used by individuals to try to avoid sanctioned banks or hide their assets for a while but it will be done only on a small scale, and no chance this will work for a country. In order to circumvent sanctions, you would first have to convince your partner to deal with you in the first place and there is no way Boeing will start sending spare parts to Russia just because they can be paid in monero.

Furthermore, there is another problem, in order for the Russian companies and different sectors of the government to get BTC they would have to actually "import" them, in order to use them you need to have them in the first place, so it will be like exchanging rubles to dollars or euros, since BTC is a globally traded currency, so they will put the same strain on their national currency that they tried to avoid by banning foreign currency purchase.

This is the Weimar scenario again, you have marks/rubles and you need to get dollars but nobody wants your rubles/marks.
We all know how it ended.

Even tho the implications of crypto lessening the impacts of the sanctions have been exaggerated and overblown, this could actually be a bad thing to the progress of crypto in the sense that its decentralization could be at risk as governments will request a bigger grip on crypto in the future if crypto wants to get more addoption. And that's something the crypto community will have to rethink and see if just getting monetary gain from crypto rising will just it being less decentralized.

I believe in the saying that, "necessity is the mother of all invention". It will not be an new "invention", but a black market for trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might be a solution for the inefficiencies caused by the sanctions on Russia. It will also open opportunties to arbitrage for the buyers and sellers operating in that hypothetical black market.

Good points. It is also too early for bitcoin usage to be as big as some are claiming these days. The sanctions haven't really started to show their effects in people's day to day lives not to mention that majority of people are very slow at making big changes in their lives such as starting to use something alien to them as bitcoin.

That could explain the recent rise in bitcoin price, but also the reason why bitcoin pumps and dumps immediately in sequence, because that is common when using bitcoin as an intermediary currency to move money from one place to another. That is, the middleman between ruble and the currencies from countries which imposed sanctions on Russia.

The centralized economy is ultimately a false trusting system. Anything could happen with the government and you are done. The inflation rate is even higher than what you promise to get in return from a Bank after x years. The buying power of $1k is not the same after x years.

Imagine if there were no crypto. Ukraine would have been worse.

Yes, Russian bitcoin users can avoid the effect of the economic crisis but unless we have more p2p eventually decentralized exchange systems, we will not realize the true benefit of decentralization.

That's their problem. They want you to under their control so obviously bitcoin and crypto are threat for them. But from the perspective of an average joe, bitcoin is your financial freedom. The earlier you realize it, the better it for you.

This should be an eye opener for those who are still waiting to get into Bitcoin while holding their fiats.

Actually Lagarde pretty much knows what Bitcoin is for and what it can do. But her declaration is rather "political" and what she's trying to do is to find as much ammo as she can against bitcoin.

The number of Russians using bitcoin to avoid sanctions is most probably insignificant and the big fish they want to sanction can easily buy whatever they want using others' names where needed. As few examples have shown, fiat (her so dear Euro and Dollars) is still transported abroad in suitcases when not stored in 1001 banks around the globe under 101 names.

So what Bitcoin does now for Russians is a drop in the ocean and she knows that. Just she is afraid of Bitcoin and its power if it's left to grow freely.

She did speak today at the BIS Innovation Summit (14:15-14:40 In Conversation with Christine Lagarde), where she spoke about the digital Euro. Perhaps that’s where she made those statements.

One can register for free to the summit, although today’s live events are over, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to view the events retrospectively (yet).

see: https://www.bis.org/events/bis_innovation_summit_2022/overview.htm

Lagarde is a known bitcoin hater. She'll say whatever is needed to put bitcoin in a bad light and she is going to get well compensated for doing it.
There's really no proof that they are using it to avoid sanctions. If it is happening then to what extent because if a Russian billionaire would really put some money into Bitcoin we'd see it on the charts, unless he'd buy OTC but that's a different story because buying OTC wouldn't generate a trace for Lagarde to use. Many Russians receive bitcoin donations, even prostitutes are turning to cryptocurrencies but these are very small amounts when compared to the billions lost to sanctions.

I think P2P trading are still possible and they are using a middleman from other countries that are not Russian.    Let's not forget that Russia have some friends .... and these friends will support them when needed. Yes, the conversion from Crypto to Fiat and visa versa will be a challenge but it is not bulletproof.

The DarkNet provide them with a perfect hiding ground to launder money and they have some of the best hackers in the world. Many of these super rich people knew about the war, before it happened ..so they would have converted a large amount of Crypto before it happened. 

maybe from p2p trading platforms. but if they are dealing with large amount of fiat, they will be subjecting themselves to possible screw-up. most centralised exchanges require kyc if you are transacting with large amount of money. so unless, the exchange is not putting any restrictions from russian nationals, they can use the exchange. however, with the ongoing war situation, their assets are also in jeopardy once the government will be very strict to the exchange itself. though they can always ask someone they know, not russian in origin to do the conversion for them. a lot of people has connection somewhere in the world that they can ask favour from.

Going through the link, I could not find any credible source to the claim, it was more of a claim.

Also, the article presents this as a problem, with Bitcoin being a threat to financial institutions. Whether this is true or not, individuals have the right to evade sanctions if they can, Russians in general have not done anything wrong and do not have to suffer consequences, if Bitcoin would help avoid those consequences, then it is working as it was designed.

Some people might be able to bypass some sanctions but it’s quite tough to be able to. Most exchanges are KYC & aren’t allowing Russian nationals to trade with them atm. You can avoid sanctions by using crypto but how are they supposed to buy significant amounts of crypto when exchanges won’t accept their fiat?

European central bank is now understanding the implications of cryptocurrency and decentralization.

Billionaires, big companies and even common individuals are trying to get around sanctions by using cryptocurrencies. It is possible to get around some, not all of them.

Cryptocurrency,  specially bitcoin, mean freedom. Certainly all.those sanctions showed the world that n money is really  safe (putin jusr closed the stock market), nd some bitcoin in your portfolio are really handy