Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Russian central bank, has stated that the mass launch of the digital ruble will take five to seven years. This appears to contradict recent suggestions by the chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market that the launch will begin next year. No Decision Before 2025 Elvira Nabiullina, […]
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Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, stated that the current pilot test of the Russian digital ruble was “on track,” with several operations being tested, including opening wallets, and interactions with smart contracts. Nabiullina revealed that over 25,000 transactions were registered, and confirmed the pilot expansion later this year. Russian Digital Ruble Pilot […]
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Gold miner Polymetal International on Monday said it had struck a deal to sell the entirety of its Russian mining business for $3.69 billion, with a view to fully exiting the Russian Federation due to the combined threats of Western sanctions and nationalization by Putin’s government.
If approved by shareholders, Polymetal will sell the business to Russian mining company JSC Mangazeya Plus, with a view to re-focusing its operations towards Kazakhstan where it currently runs two mines that account for around one-third of its total production.
The Anglo-Russian gold miner, which was founded in St Petersburg in 1998, said the sanctions-compliant agreement would see JSC Mangazeya Plus pay it $1.48 billion in cash and also agree to settle the Russian segment’s $2.21 billion debts.
Shares in Polymetal International fell 6% on Monday in Moscow, having lost 11% of their value over the past 12 months and 66% of their value since the start of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
In August 2023, the company abandoned its London listing and re-domiciled from Jersey to Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, with a view to avoiding Russia imposed rules that designated Jersey an “unfriendly jurisdiction” in response to Western sanctions.
Polymetal said it will let shareholders vote on the agreement at its upcoming annual general meeting on 7 March, as the company said the sell-off would help avoid risks including those posed by the operations being expropriated or nationalized by the Russian government.
In a statement, Polymetal said it believes a deal to sell its Russian operations “presents the most viable opportunity for the Group to restore shareholder value by removing or substantially mitigating critical political, legal, financial and operational risks.”
The striking of the deal marks the end of an arduous process faced by Polymetal in finding a sanctions-compliant buyer for its Russian operations, after it vowed to exit that country following the outbreak of war.
Polymetal’s push to divest from Russia was made more urgent by the U.S. Department of State’s decision to impose sanctions on its Russian subsidiary in May 2023, which blocked U.S. citizens from interacting with that unit.
The process of selling off its Russian assets has been more difficult due to stringent rules imposed by authorities in both Moscow and Washington on any company looking to exit Russia.
Polymetal said it had received confirmation from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that those involved in the sale to JSC Mangazeya would not be subject to sanctions, and made clear that any payment would be made via sanctions-compliant financial institutions.
JSC Mangazeya Plus is the mining subsidiary of the Mangazeya commodities conglomerate, which is controlled by Russian billionaire Sergey Yanchukov, who started his career as an oil trader in Ukraine.
If completed, the deal will see Polymetal retain its position as the second largest gold miner in Kazakhstan, in controlling two mines with an estimated 11.3 million ounces of gold.
Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has died, Russian state news agency Tass reported on Friday, citing the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence.
The prison service reportedly said the cause of Navalny’s death was still to be established.
Alexey Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh said in a Google-translated update on the X social media platform that “We don’t have any confirmation of this yet. Alexey’s lawyer is now flying to Kharp. As soon as we have any information, we will report it.”
CNBC could not independently verify the report.
Navalny, 47, was an anti-corruption campaigner and one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics. He was serving a 19-year jail term on charges of extremism.
Navalny “felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness,” Interfax reported, citing a statement from the office for the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region.
The statement said “all the necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, but did not yield positive results.” It added that an ambulance was called and emergency doctors later confirmed Navalny’s death.
The Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug region said Friday on Telegram that it is organizing a procedural check into the death of Navalny, according to a Google-translated post.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on a screen via video link from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov before a court hearing to consider an appeal against his prison sentence, in Moscow, Russia May 17, 2022.
Evgenia Novozhenina | Reuters
Navalny, who previously condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as “the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century,” was moved to an Arctic penal colony late last year. It is widely considered to be one of the country’s toughest prisons.
Navalny has been held behind bars in Russia since 2021, after spending nearly half a year in Germany recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in August 2020.
The German government said in September 2020 that Navalny had been poisoned by a chemical nerve agent, saying a toxicology report provided “unequivocal evidence.” The nerve agent was in the family of Novichok, which was developed by the Soviet Union. Toxicology tests conducted in France and Sweden also came to the same conclusion.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any role in Navalny’s poisoning.
Navalny was a well-known figure in Russia and produced numerous reports on corruption that had flourished during Putin’s leadership. Famously, Putin has a long-running tradition of refusing to mention Navalny by name in public — a decision the Kremlin has previously said stems from the president’s views of the critic.
Navalny had sought to challenge Putin for Russia’s presidency, but was barred from running against him in 2018. Putin will run for president once again next month in an election where he faces only token opposition.
World leaders responded to the news of Navalny’s reported death by paying tribute to his courage as an anti-corruption activist and offering their condolences to his family.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said he was “deeply saddened and disturbed” by the reports, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed he was “very sad.” U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called news of Navalny’s death “terrible.”
Other high-profile figures raised questions over the circumstances of Navalny’s death.
In response to the comments from political leaders on Navalny’s reported death, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said via X, “The instant reaction of NATO leaders to the news of Alexey Navalny’s demise in the form of direct accusations vs Russia is self-exposing.”
She added, “No forensic medical examination data IS available, yet the West has already voiced its ‘conclusions.'”
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is progressing with its exit from Russia and is preparing to terminate local currency deposits next week.
Binance will stop accepting deposits in Russian rubles starting Nov. 15, 2023, the firm officially announced on Friday. Binance also advised users to withdraw RUB from the platform, as it expects to terminate RUB withdrawals on Jan. 31, 2024.
The announcement notes that Binance users can transfer their funds to CommEX, a new crypto exchange business that acquired Binance’s Russian division in September 2023. Binance noted that RUB withdrawals on CommEX will be zero-fee.
Other withdrawal options include Binance’s fiat partners, which will allow users to convert RUB to cryptocurrency using the “Convert” tool or just exchange on the Binance Spot Market.
Withdrawal of rubles through fiat partners takes a fee of up to 1%, a spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph.
Binance announced its full exit from Russia through the sale of its firm to a newly launched crypto exchange business known as CommEX in late September 2023. The transaction quickly sparked controversy, as Binance and CommEX have not provided much information about the size of the deal or the founders of CommEX.
Related: Turkish lira becomes top crypto trading pair on Binance in Sept. 2023
Many crypto observers have speculated that CommEX was just a new name for Binance, giving it a means for the exchange to continue operations in Russia without having issues with Western sanctions against the country. The skeptics have found significant evidence for such claims, including CommEX hiring prominent former Russia-related executives from Binance.
Binance continued to deny the allegations of possible ties between the platform and CommEX, though. “With this sale, Binance fully exits Russia. We have no plans to get back,” a spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph.
Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market — Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in
In a significant move to combat sanctions evasion and illicit financial activities, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on Ekaterina Zhdanova, a Russian national allegedly involved in laundering and transferring funds using crypto on behalf of Russian elites.
According to the announcement, the action aligns with the G7’s commitment to closing loopholes that allow Russian state actors, oligarchs, and proxies to exploit virtual currency to circumvent international sanctions.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson emphasized the alleged role played by key facilitators like Zhdanova in aiding Russian elites, ransomware groups, and other illicit actors in evading US and international sanctions through the abuse of cryptocurrencies.
Nelson stated that the Treasury remains steadfast in its efforts to safeguard the global financial system against such exploitation and other risks within the crypto ecosystem.
Allegedly, Zhdanova’s involvement in obfuscating the source of wealth for a Russian client, enabling the transfer of over $2.3 million into Western Europe via fraudulent investment accounts and real estate purchases, drew OFAC’s attention.
Zhdanova’s services provided sanctioned Russian individuals access to Western financial markets that would otherwise be restricted due to US and international prohibitions.
The US Treasury Department alleges that such illicit financial activities enable the evasion of multilateral sanctions and undermine efforts to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked war and aggression.
Utilizing cryptocurrencies as a facilitator of large cross-border transactions, Zhdanova relied on entities lacking Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) controls, including the OFAC-designated Russian cryptocurrency exchange, Garantex Europe OU.
Zhdanova employed various methods to transfer funds internationally, including cash transactions and leveraging connections with other money laundering associates and organizations.
Additionally, she utilized traditional businesses, such as a luxury watch company with global offices, to maintain access to the international financial system.
Furthermore, it is alleged that Zhdanova conducted crypto exchange transfers on behalf of oligarchs who relocated internationally, facilitating the movement of over $100 million to the United Arab Emirates.
Zhdanova also provided a tax residency service in the UAE to Russian clients, potentially participating in identity obfuscation. This service offered clients a UAE tax residency, identification card, and bank account, with payments made in cash or virtual currency, subsequently transferred to foreign bank accounts at the client’s discretion.
Notably, Zhdanova’s services extended to individuals associated with the notorious Russian Ryuk ransomware group. Zhdanova allegedly laundered approximately $2.3 million in suspected victim payments for a Ryuk ransomware affiliate, which has targeted numerous victims worldwide, including the United States, particularly in the healthcare sector.
As a consequence of this action, all US persons must report any property or interests in property belonging to Zhdanova or any entities directly or indirectly owned by her. Transactions involving such property are generally prohibited unless authorized by OFAC.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a Russian businesswoman on Nov. 3.
The agency said that Russian national Ekaterina Zhdanova helped the country’s elites launder and move funds using virtual currency and other methods.
The Treasury said that Zhdanova used virtual currency to perform large cross-border transactions. Specifically, it said that Zhdanova was asked by one Russian oligarch to move over $100 million to the United Arab Emirates. Zhdanova was also involved in creating a United Arab Emirates tax residency service for Russian clients, which involved payments in both cash and virtual currency.
The agency added that Zhdanova laundered $2.3 million for an affiliate of the Russian ransomware group Ryuk, which typically relies on crypto payments. The Treasury believes that the funds originated as payment from ransomware victims.
The Treasury said that Zhdanova relies on services that do not have AML/CFT controls, including one Russian crypto exchange called Garantex, itself designated in 2022.
The Treasury suggested that Zhdanova additionally moves money through other traditional, non-cryptocurrency means, including cash, connections to other money launderers, and a luxury watch company. In March 2022, she helped a Russian client obscure and move more than $2.3 million to Western Europe through a fraudulently opened investment account and through real estate purchases.
Today’s sanctions block most transactions between Zhdanova and financial institutions or individuals. The sanctions also block the transfer of any of Zhdanova’s property that is held by a U.S. entity; furthermore, it requires such property to be reported to OFAC.
Though the sanctions apply to a variety of funds and property, an attached page lists three Bitcoin addresses that belong to Zhdanova and are now restricted.
OFAC has sanctioned numerous other Russia-linked entities, with many of those sanctions arriving in the wake of the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Other notable sanctions targeted the Russian mining firm Bitriver and members of a Dubai-based firm called Huriya Private. Chainalysis maintains a list of other recent sanctions.
CommEX, the company that acquired Binance’s Russian operations, anticipates approximately a million customers to transition to its platform, Russian media Kommersant reported Wednesday, Oct. 4.
However, not all of Binance’s Russian customers will likely migrate to CommEx. According to Dmitry Stepanin, CEO of Satoshkin, pointed out to Kommersant that crypto traders primarily turned to the ByBit exchange, which has shown significant marketing activity recently. Other exchanges such as Huobi, Bitget, Kucoin, and Gand ate.io, offering similar functionality to Binance, are also expected to see a surge in user inflow. This observation is corroborated by the P2P service Army, which has reported a steady increase in active ads for other crypto exchanges.
Anton Toroptsev, CommEX CEO, told Kommersant that he estimates the influx to his platform will be about 1 million users. In contrast, independent financial analyst Andrey Barkhota estimates that at least 700 thousand Russians were registered on Binance.
However, Binance has refrained from disclosing the exact number of its Russian customers. The user transition from Binance to CommEX, according to Toroptsev, will occur in phases. Initially, users can log in to CommEX using a Binance account with only basic Know Your Customer (KYC) information and login details being transferred. However, full KYC data is expected to be transferable within a week.
The pullout of Binance from Russia, according to Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation, is primarily due to pressure from US regulators who have accused the exchange of money laundering and evading sanctions, Kommersant reported. Moreover, Binance had gradually introduced restrictions for Russian users, including a ban on holdings exceeding $10,000 in their wallets and limiting transactions to rubles only. Yet, Binance reportedly made between $2 – $4 billion annually from its Russian clientele.
Nevertheless, Sergey Mendeleev, the head of the InDeFi Smart Bank, also told Kommersant that Binance is merely rebranding for a smoother operation in Russia. While CommEX, despite its Russian acquisition, maintains its registration in Seychelles and focuses on Asia and the CIS. The relative anonymity of CommEX’s owners and the platform’s nascent status represent potential risks of scams, hacker attacks, or security loopholes, warns Nekrasov.
As the crypto trading landscape continues to evolve in response to regulatory pressures and market dynamics, the metamorphosis of Binance’s operations in Russia offers a case study in adaptation and resilience.
Russia’s deputy finance minister said the country would not let foreign banks exit the market easily, Reuters reported.
Russia’s decision to allow the banks to leave would “depend on the decision to unfreeze Russian assets,” he said.
Russia has been imposing punitive measures on companies exiting the Russian market.
Russia is imposing increasing costs for corporate breakups by foreign banks — it’s now demanding they unfreeze Russian assets if they want to exit the market.
“We have stated our position, and it stands — we will be tough in letting foreign banks go, it will depend on the decision to unfreeze Russian assets,” Alexei Moiseev, Russia’s deputy finance minister, said at a forum on Friday, Reuters reported.
Western nations and their allies have frozen more than $300 billion in Russian central bank assets abroad as part of their sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It’s not clear how many of these Russian assets were frozen by Western banks.
Moiseev’s comments come as President Vladimir Putin’s regime continues to impose increasing punitive measures on companies trying to exit the Russian market.
Despite 1,000 companies announcing they were voluntarily cutting back on operations merely two months after the Ukraine war started in February 2022, just 535 foreign companies have made a clean break with the country, an ongoing study from Yale University that was last updated on September 3 has found.
But it’s not for lack of trying: Over 2,000 companies were seeking approval to exit the Russian market, but the progress has been slow due to logistical delays, among other reasons.
Moscow also charges exiting companies an exit fee of at least 10% of the sale value of the local business. In addition, the Russian government started requiring sellers from “unfriendly countries” to donate at least 10% of the sale proceeds to the Russian budget from March 2023.
Raiffeisen Bank — the largest Western bank still operating in Russia and working on a sale or spin-off of its local business — said in its half-year report released on August 1, “The local and international laws and regulations governing the sale of businesses in Russia are subject to constant change.”
Moiseev said at the Friday forum there was one foreign bank applying to sell its assets in Russia, Reuters reported. He did not name the bank but added that Raiffeisen had not made such an application.
While Western banks have reduced or are working on reducing their exposure to the Russian market, Chinese banks are trying to fill their shoes.
The Kyiv School of Economics found China’s Big Four banks — the Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Agricultural Bank of China — had more than quadrupled their lending to Russia between February 2022 and March 2023, the Financial Times reported Monday.
The big four Chinese banks had a combined exposure of $2.2 billion to Russia’s banking sector at the beginning of February 2022. That jumped to nearly $10 billion at the end of March 2023, the FT reported.
Russia’s finance ministry, Kyiv School of Economics, Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Agricultural Bank of China did not immediately respond to requests from Insider for comment. The Chinese banks declined to comment to the FT.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The spotlight recently came on sanctioned Russian banks after they were spotted as payment options on some top crypto exchanges.
OKX and Bybit appear to have followed in the footsteps of Binance in a recent move that saw the exchanges de-list two Russian banks from their accepted payments option. As seen on both exchanges, Tinkoff Bank and Sberbank (both Russian) are no longer available for users to carry out peer-to-peer P2P transactions.
First noted by the Russian media, the update means that users of either exchange may no longer use their Tinkoff or Sberbank accounts to receive fiat money in exchange for their crypto assets. As of publication, however, there is yet to be an official statement to this effect.
It looks like the decisions of both crypto exchanges may have been informed by their desire to comply with the dictates of the United States Treasury. So, it is not a problem with Russian entities per se, but that of the treasury’s earlier sanctions.
Notably, OKX still allows its users to receive fiat using other Russian banks. These include the Russian Standard Bank and a Russian branch of Raiffeisen Bank. And, interestingly, both banks are not included in the sanctions list that was compiled by the United States Treasury.
Recently, the spotlight came on sanctioned Russian banks after they were spotted as payment options on some top crypto exchanges. At the time, a Wall Street Journal report claimed that Binance and many others still list Tinkoff and Sberbank as transfer methods.
Shortly after, however, Binance moved to remove both options from its P2P platform. And though, its decision may have set the precedence for others like OKX and ByBit, there is still the possibility that P2P users may privately agree on using the sanctioned banks as an exchange option.
Russia had launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This caused the United States, like many other nations, to impose sanctions on the country.
On April 6, the Treasury imposed full-blocking sanctions on Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank. And more recently, in July, Tinkoff was one of 5 Russian banks that US authorities also took action against.
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Mayowa is a crypto enthusiast/writer whose conversational character is quite evident in his style of writing. He strongly believes in the potential of digital assets and takes every opportunity to reiterate this.
He’s a reader, a researcher, an astute speaker, and also a budding entrepreneur.
Away from crypto however, Mayowa’s fancied distractions include soccer or discussing world politics.