Bitcoin Forum

The Russia's central bank wanted cryptocurrencies to be banned in its country but the Russian president, Vladimir Putin said bitcoin mining and other crypto mining will be beneficial for Russia. Some people at that time have been supectimg this could be a move by the Russia's president that he is planning to invade Ukraine which will result to sanctions, thinking cryptocurrencies would be a means to evade sanctions and make it economically less effective.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov demand crypto exchanges to freeze all Russian accounts so that the sanction can be effective, but most exchanges did not support this. I read few days ago that cryptocurrencies may not help in Russia sanction but FinCEN concluded that Russia can attempt to use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions.

FinCEN Provides Financial Institutions with Red Flags on Potential Russian Sanctions Evasion Attempts (https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-provides-financial-institutions-red-flags-potential-russian-sanctions)

What is your take? What role can cryptocurrencies play in helping Russia sanctions evasion and to what extent can this be?

Hahaha. The Russians being sanctioned couldn't make Bitcoin's fundamental thesis, and main value-proposition clearer for the public. Governments use financial bans, and sanctions to control you. In this kind of world, we should be HODLing decentralized, censorship-resistant money.

The approval of bitcoin in Russia has no place to helping Russian economy at this time even if Putin is going to insue licences to mining just because he is under sanction.


Ukraine has no power on exchanges that is not under there watch, not in their country and this is going to be impossible to achieve.

Russia could've made early-stage plans. No immediate issuance of licences on cryptocurrency mining gonna impact or make big changes to get rid of the sanctions. Right now to overcome the sanctions, the right way is to end the war and make talks and conclude with some treaty.

Ukraine on the other side benefits out of the decentralised infrastructure receiving donations and it wanting to have control over the Russians crypto accounts disturbs the true meaning of decentralisation.

Cryptocurrencies while being a decentralized asset/currency cannot help Russia or any country evade international sanctions.

Popular payment systems; VISA, MasterCard, American Express have all declared that international payments from Russia would be halted, and this came after U.S. and some E.U. countries blocked certain banks in Russia from SWIFT, all of these sanctions would not be evaded by bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, it can help the citizens escape economic collapse and have an alternative payment system, but cannot shield the country from the effects.

Stopping the war would be the fastest way to lift those sanctions, but Russia do not look to be considering that now after hinting at a partnership with a Chinese payment system.

It's more like helping them keep their money safe no? But technically the economy of the country would be rather out of hand already and sanctions would have already been applied to it, whether they want it or not. To make a comparison, it's like Bitcoin is a getaway method for them to escape a burning place, but when they come back, the place would still be burned down. Might've been the best option for the rich to keep themselves from being rich, but certainly not an option for the country itself to survive on it.

For his mind (Putin). Do you even know that about 25,000 Russians account has been placed on ban from one of the populous exchange coinbase and this is as a result of strict adherence in following the call on sanction placed on Russia.
https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/03/08/coinbase-blocks-25000-russian-accounts/?utm_source=thecryptoapp

That's not how sanctions work.
Let's imagine the sanction on Russian gas/oil. If Europe is starving for gas and aren't allowed to buy it from Russia they will not buy it from Russia. Cryptocurrencies don't even come in! Similarly if the starving European countries decided they have no other choice to buy Russian gas they will buy it again there is no cryptocurrencies involved!
That's the same with anything else that was sanctioned.

What bitcoin can help with is when regular people are being sanctioned by the orchestrators of the financial terrorism, can easily use a currency that nobody can take from them or can dictate where they can use that money.

This is exactly what the Russian government are up to.
However, news outlets like CNN tell differently as If China has no plans on helping Russia ease the economic sanctions, but has not participated in the sanctions as well.
We all know that China will eventually do something for the payment system.
While, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin may not going to work to help "evade" the economic sanctions in Russia. However It can help an individual to by pass the suspension of the Russian banks caused by the economic sanctions.

Cryptocurrencies can be decentralized but centralized exchanges and centralized wallets are not decentralized, only centralized exchanges and wallets is what I are talking about. For people that are using decentralized wallets, there is nothing because the have the control, not the exchanges. But Russians can turn to decentralized means though.

This is what I am most thinking about too, I have been thinking of ways cryptocurrencies can help Russia to evade sanction but I still got no clue to it. Also that if the sanction continues, there would be alternative means for Russia to make those sanctions not effective like before, like alternative payment system to Swift and also trading more with China and other Asia countries.

I think I will prefer Chainanalysis report than any other one, but Chainanalysis prefer to report on what has happened ready and how it happened.

I read yesterday that the Russian Army has announced temporal ceasefire to allow for evacuation of civilians after both countries accused themselves of not obeying such agreement earlier. I think that bitcoin adoption or not shouldn't be Putin's priority now but to enter into peaceful dialogue and negotiation to end the war and only that can peace and economic rebuilding will come to Russia but for now EU is not ready to back down on those sanctions and Russian economy will keep going down even if they start trading with China, cost variation will be very wide from trading with follow EU members.

In my opinion, Russia can only evade sanctions through cryptocurrencies if crypto exchanges don't join the sanction which I highly doubt as the sanctions from crypto exchanges against Russia have started already started with coinbase blocking 25,000 accounts linked to Russia.
The only way I think crypto currencies can help Russia to evade the economical effects from the world sanctions is if they build their own crypto exchange(s), but even at this, the hope is still very little because the world will still boycott that exchange and its growth will be completely dwarfed.
It's a hard situation for Russia and it seems they are yet to come to terms with this reality, the world is wired in a way that we all require support from each other to move ahead, and breaking away from that support is suicidal, Russia will soon realize this, except they turn and make amends.

cryptocurrency cannot be used by Russia to evade sanctions from the US and its allies. Cryptocurrencies will only be an alternative to help their economy but not in the long term, still banking-based payments are needed.

... but President Putin's move to use cryptocurrencies is commendable because it will help the development of the crypto market and its adoption today

Unless Russia uses Iran's work-around strategy to bypass sanctions on their oil exports. They can use their oil to power Bitcoin mining farms, and sell those freshly minted "virgin Bitcoins" at a premium.

It can help with SWIFT/financial sanctions if Russia itself wanted to transact using an open, permissionless ledger like Bitcoin. They can use that as leverage in weakening political strongholds. "You want Russian gas? Pay us in Bitcoin, or tell the U.S. to remove financial sanctions".

All this crypto for evading sanctions by Russia is false drama, talking about peanuts.
Russia doesn't need crypto to evade sanctions. As long as many countries still buy oil and gas from Russia, no matter the war, even fiat is flowing pretty muck OK.

And do you really expect the bigger whales from Russia have all their money in Russia? It's hidden in various countries, I'm sure.
Do you really think they cannot hire somebody from any country exchange that money into crypto for them?!


PS. What Coinbase did was cheap PR in the face of the govt (they never cared much of bitcoiners, didn't they?)

It won't be commendable because everybody know it is for selfish purpose, purpose for just to run off from the effect of sanction, purpose of just survival and not for the real purpose of freedom of choice and adoption of open source system through blockchain. And purpose of possible denouncing bitcoin when situation is gone back to normal. Bitcoiners and crypto ethusiast are snarter than believing the use of bitcoin for selfish means.

The only way to circumvent the sanctions is to make bitcoin a primary currency like the ruble, so if Russia becomes like El Salvador they have a chance to evade the problem, apparently from the news they have learned they do not have this intention at the moment. But Putin is not stupid, he will surely have studied a plan to deal with these sanctions, obviously there are also other cryptocurrencies that can be used so turning the problem is feasible but not easy!

I very much doubt that cryptocurrencies can help the Russian economy in this situation. Their implementation and legalization, the "tying" of economy under crypto takes time and targeted government action, and now Russia can not afford it, because it is busy waging war against Ukraine and shooting civilians. I see their appeal to cryptocurrencies as an attempt to be inspired before death. They see that sanctions are killing their economy. It is only necessary to understand that only a complete withdrawal of troops from the independent territory of Ukraine can save it, and not an attempt to patch up a leaky ship with Bitcoin.

There is a contradictory analysis of "Cryptocurrency will not save Russia from sanctions (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5387933.0)" and I kind of agree with that.
The vice prime minister of Ukraine is also trying to maximize global economic sanctions against Russia in various ways, including efforts to identifying the crypto addresses of Russian politicians that may be a loophole to avoid sanctions.

Certain blockchain explorers can unilaterally flag suspicious addresses.

Even from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao himself saying that cryptocurrencies won’t help evade sanctions.  

But from my own perspective, Russia can possibly evade sanctions if they turn towards full decentralization or exchanges refusing to ban Russians from using their respective platforms. Like for instance, mandating all businesses to accept crypto payments by using non-custodial wallets.

No matter what CZ says, it needs to be noted that CZ denied blocking Russian accounts from Binance through a rightful decision. So not sure why he thinks that cryptos can't help Russia evade the sanctions.

Russia can certainly try this. But considering the global sentiment is against Russia right at this moment, it may not be beneficial for them. Their internal economy can be supported by cryptos but the global trade won't go through crypto route.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies can definitely help Russia to bypass some economic sanctions while bitcoin can help people to get their money away from governments eyes and save them from the governments, sometimes this can help the governments to stay safe from the economic sanction, However, in my own idea, Putin was so really for any sanction and even with or without of the bitcoin they have their own ways to stay safe from the sanctions. generally, I think these say economic sanctions are not useful anymore to put the dictators under pressure.

It is still having desirable effect on the Russian economy because the rupee is dropping against the dollar and you know what it means for a country to have dropping value of currency against the dollar, this is leading to high cost of importation which will increase inflation too. But what I see is that Russia also what to retaliate the EU by cutting off gas supply to Germany and that will affect other EU countries, rail ways and other utilities.

I've mentioned it before but their sudden turnaround of crypto stance hinted of their plans to invade Ukraine. They were preparing for sanctions. Well, let's just see in the news how well they've prepared. They can still get banned from exchanges and it'll be interesting how they'll get around that.

You think they've bought enough crypto before they started the invasion?


If the fiat and crypto freeze on the Freedom Convoy wasn't enough to open their eyes, nothing will.

Do you really believe that they need crypto? They are still selling as we speak gas and oil to Germany, USA and a whole lot of other countries, and they're not even selling it cheap. Do you think they don't get paid for that, no matter the sanctions on TV? Gas flows, fiat flows, and the common people (some brain washed, some scared, some standing against the war, no matter, all of them), as usual, suffer.

It seems to me that what can be called cultural sanctions affects them much more than economic issues. Twitter, YouTube, Tik Tok, Netflix and others came out of Russia. Russians were banned from flying to other countries. They were restricted from accessing the civilized world in various ways. Now they are forced to be exclusively in their own environment, and they begin to realize that it is not as bright as they were told on TV. People quickly get used to the good things, and when they disappear, it is very difficult to switch to a low-quality "homeland product". Perhaps this is what will make them finally wake up from the lethargic sleep in which they have been for the last 20 years.

The fact that crypto could be used to avoid sanctions may create a bit of danger for all of us as well. In the sense that, they can't do anything about crypto itself, but they can do something about what you can do with crypto. In the sense that they are not going to just freeze blockchain, they do not have the power to do so, it will continue like it has been for the past 10+ years.

However, they can put some legal restrictions and regulations about having your money on exchanges or trading or whatever, so basically not with your crypto, but what you do with it. So in that case, it will be harder for all of us to use it, but it will also get better when it stops.

And now Russia has finally stopped shipping gas to Europe, which makes European countries finally constrained by gas consumption for factory needs. It turns out that the impact of sanctions against Russia was actually retaliated by stopping gas exports, we know Russia is the largest gas producer in the world and even Francis is the country that buys gas the most from Russia, now he appeals to its citizens not to panic and will immediately take alternative actions using coal. Closing each other's economic gaps has an impact on the instability of other countries. And one thing, non-block countries like me are experiencing the impact of the invasion which is almost a few days where we live the internet is completely down.

Hahaha, reverse-sanction by Putin. Every person who says that Russia is "not relevant" base their analysis through GDP denominated in the U.S. Dollar. BUT the truth is, Russia is the source of 17% of the global supply of Natural Gas, 11% of oil, 11% Wheat, and I believe one of the largest sources of Palladium and fertilizer.

...Also 5% of global nickel production.

On the oil and gas topic, it's a "reverse sanction" only for medium term. If the current status remains for long, then it will force:
* infrastructure development towards other suppliers (hence on the long term more competition and maybe lower prices)
* infrastructure development for increased use of greens energy (maybe more nuclear plants, maybe more hydrogen, clearly more solar, wind and hydro)

I fear that this war can easily turn into a years long guerrilla war in Ukraine, I fear that this war can easily go farther, engulfing more countries, I fear it can easily turn into WW3.
All these scenarios would mean that much more infrastructure will need built or rebuilt.

Well based on their change of stance I'm assuming they did but then again many have been speculating that foreign governments have been buying even before. Oil is probably going to be the last resource to get sanctioned but I'm assuming they'd use crypto to perform certain transactions they won't be able to do after their banks get kicked off SWIFT.

Russia is the largest country in the word to be honest and they're listed as a big distributor in other countries such oil, gas and etc. sso on that case probably they don't need cryptocurrency such bitcoin to bypass sanction because fiat will keep entering on their country despite of the situation.  and infact it seems most russian are not affected because they keep supporting putin decisions.

And lastly they still have choice instead of bitcoin IMO and it will be their digital ruble.

Let's GUESS. Now let's simulate how it will look in reality?
To begin with, remember - the entire economy of the Russian Federation is either a resource-based economy that depends on Western technologies, or everything else that is completely dependent on Western technologies. Yes, yes - Russia is a technologically backward country. All technologies are borrowed. So. Russia is lowering a new iron curtain. He buys crypts, and / or releases his own, and ? How, for example, will they buy Canadian technologies for gas production for a crypt? Here answer? Provided that the supply of such technologies is prohibited!

You are putting too much meaning into oil and gas in 2022. Sure that matters, and right now the price of oil and gas prices increased a lot because of this, and even wheat has increased a lot (I hear olive oil or some sort of thing like that also increased).

However, none of these are things that can't be found in another country. Like wheat, that's a very simple thing, if you got it from one place, you do not look or build in another place, but if west wanted to, they could literally spend enough money to turn ENTIRE African nation (pick any poor one you want) into wheat farm, literally entire nation. Or oil? Saudi Arabia has so much, they could take out all the oil today, and that would be enough for 20 years of wests needs. Basically these are temporary and sudden changes and the economy will be impacted, but in the long run, it is really not a big deal at all.

But we know very well that this would affect Russia more than it would affect other European countries. Russia is already feeling the heat of the action that they have taken. Their economy is already falling, and their currency is losing value. Other countries can easily make use of other alternatives that are available to them, which I believe for sure that there are so many alternatives to making use of gas.

But for Russia, they would keep on keeping the gas for as long, and that is not doing any good to them. Rather it would even’ cause more of negative impact on their economy, since they wouldn’t be making much exports this time around.  Other countries have stopped making use of their gas, and they are still doing fine, their economy is still OK even at this point.

Stop using gas will halt everything from production to household cooking. Given that it's winter, the more there is the need for gas and oil that's why Biden asked Iran and Saudi to produce gas for EU. It's impossible to stop using gas, it's time for every country to use the alternative sources like wind and sunlight massively.

Russia evading sanctions will be difficult but the one ally they have which is China plays a vital role for them to achieve many things still. I'm afraid this one has more influence than Russia.

This is rubbish because the cryptocurrency networks do not have the capacity to handle the amount of transactions a country like Russia would need efficiently. Even if it did somehow manage to make this work, sanctions on any individuals or companies would wipe out any potential benefit very clearly - at best this could provide a very short term solution. However it will be of limited benefit to them right now, because the ruble has already plunged so far and a lot of their trade is denominated in foreign currencies, which they cannot get back into the country. Anyone who thinks they're smart by evading financial restrictions in this sort of way could become a huge target and be made an example of by many regulators.

I believe this war will end with Ukraine's president negotiating with Putin. If a war continues, you're right, it will only be contained within Ukraine as a guerilla war. I also believe Russia doesn't want to be in a World War. They merely want control of Ukraine because Russia's major gas pipelines go through the country.

https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/wye3cjqpr4b.jpeg

They can evade sanctions if they use gold, yuan or some other local currency too. The thing is, they won't be doing any trades with the countries that sanction them anyways so It doesn't matter what they use. Let's say Russia is trading with China. Does it matter if they use crypto or Yuans? Both countries see each other as allies... If you think the US companies will do business with Russia and evade the sanctions I think that's a very big problem for the US.

They are planning to shut their internet connection from the rest of the world, how would they benefit from cryptocurrencies? Perhaps some of them already hoarded for future use, but it would still be useless until Russia decides to stop whatever it is that they're doing and focus on other things apart from invading other countries. They can try to hoard gold and their petrol products which will be extremely valuable in the future, but that doesn't really mean much if you can't sell it for fiat.

Some people have said that centralized exchanges that are not in Russia can’t be forced by the Russian government to freeze the account of their citizens. I don’t really know much about this; that if centralized exchange is not in a particular country that it can’t be controlled or willed to do as the government pleases.

But, one thing I do know for sure is that a decentralized exchange is always the best to use. When people are making use of peer to peer exchanges, there is no way that the government would be able to control them or even control their asset and freeze it.

The logic is that, if Russians want to hold wealth in another currency, it would be difficult, if it is all about just paying someone in another nation, then they could do it. The difference is that, if you want to pay me, someone who is not Russian, you can and Russia will be losing money there, whereas they will get something from me.

But, if you are a Russian wealthy person, then you can't just use crypto to take it out and turn it into another fiat. You can't just buy bitcoin with ruble, then turn that bitcoin into dollar and put that dollar into your bank account. Bank will notify the government and government will freeze your account and your money would be gone.

Not all peer to peer exchanges is decentralized exchange, take a look with LocalBitcoins and Luno, it's peer to peer but still custodial platform. The exchange will know which IP you used and if they ask your KYC, you don't have any choice and let know you're Russian citizens. They may freeze your asset either on their platform or after you convert to Ruble. The real decentralized exchange is Bisq, hodlhodl, and Localcryptos.

And it's not just about that. Even if this could be done with less difficulty, it is still the path of a minority of the Russian population. It will not save the country from sanctions, although it may save some people. Russia is a country that exploits natural resources. It is vital for them to sell them. Without this permission, they will default. And even if there are not enough rational reasons for this and there are certain ways to circumvent the bans, the panic that has already gripped the population will end the case.

Cryptocurrencies that are free and no one controls it make anyone not worry about receiving money, and the Russian government, which has legalized cryptocurrencies, of course understands that they can be subject to sanctions so that the presence of cryptocurrencies can avoid sanctions completely.

Hmm ... And tell me HOW? For example, the day before yesterday sanctions were introduced prohibiting transactions with Russian gold. Who can buy it? China. But China will buy it at the price it sets itself. Russia has no choice and Russia cannot put pressure on China, because. itself is essentially an appendage of China!
Yuan or, for example, North Korean won - well, ok. And what do they buy for yuan or won? China will most likely raise prices in yuan (already deliveries to Russia are coming with a 30-40% price increase), or set prices in dollars, which evaporate catastrophically in Russia. What will any local currency give them if they need Western products and technologies?

It is that this is a consequence of the answers that Russia obviously had to give, but what is most impressive of all is Biden's actions with respect to Oil, he sent a special high command commission in the USA to speak with Maduro in Venezuela, then in the NYT it appears that they recognize Maduro as president, when they assumed that Guaidó was president, then they reach agreements such as Venezuela reopening operations with the USA for oil, and in turn they send oil specialists to help steal more than Venezuela, then Biden comes out saying that he does not want more Russian oil, I think this is a function that nobody expected, what other scenarios will Biden take to get out of trouble?

 Sometimes when you are fighting against a bigger threat, you leave all the politics aside and deal with what hand you are dealt with. If Russia wants to play ball, Biden is ready to play ball. This is a refreshing sight to see after last president ended up licking Putins boots. Russia has always been the enemy of the USA and last president liked their dictator so much because he wanted to be like him. This is why it is obvious that Biden taking a stance that matters to many americans. Russia can't just attack on Ukraine, get sanctions because of their killings, and then assume that cutting of gas would be fine to make europe take a step back. All of europe will eventually find a resolution, maybe today, maybe in a month, maybe in a few years who knows, but we all know that from this day forward, nobody will want to do business with Russia and be ready to get "independent from Russia" even after sanctions are over.

In general, the problem of sagging oil supplies seems to have been solved ...

Venezuela will sell oil to the United States.
Caracas intends to increase oil production in 2022 to 2-3 million barrels per day and sell it in the United States.
"Venezuela is open to investment, oil and gas production, oil and gas stability around the world, including the United States. We are ready to sell US oil and gas, we must not politicize economic issues," said Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). President Nicolas Maduro.
Nothing personal, just business :)

Its hard to answer, They will try everything to avoid sanctions including cryptocurrencies, but as of now in USA as FinCEN said, they haven't seen widespread evasion of sanctions using cryptocurrency and as I know it takes time for authorities to study how can they prevent  potential Russian sanctions evasion and they will study this from time to time.

Sending and getting the Gold to evade sanctions will be risky because of issues with portability. Using Yuan, and other fiat currencies will only strengthen that government's political influence over you. Plus it requires trust over centralized entry, and exit points which could censor you. If only if someone invented a protocol that's open, permissionless and neutral. 8)

The addresses that's sending large amounts of money are going to be investigated and if was proven to be used as a means to fund the war effort, I'm sure that people that has the power and influence are going to make sure that the Russian government won't be able to do that.

US is considering lifting sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry, Maduro has also announced an increase in oil production to replace Russian supplies.
But this is difficult to do in the short term, given the heavy impact of years-long US sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry, which has been abandoned. Experts estimate it will take several years and cost billions of dollars to help Venezuela's oil industry recover.

I think you people are severly underestimating the gigantic funds that an entire country like Russia has. Bitcoin has nowhere the market cap to compensate for that. Russia investing state funds into Bitcoin is nothing like El Salvador investing their state peanuts. We are talking about amounts in the trillions. Can you imagine the volatility? Any active investor would use the chance of Bitcoin going from 40k to 4 million to sell for profit and then Russias Bitcoins would drop in value. The Russian state is not going to do that...

The idea itself is possible. But only if half of the entire world aka every second country in the world was already hodling Bitcoin. And even then, Russia would have second thoughts because even then Bitcoin would be too volatile.

I hope it's not the case, because if Western countries see that crypto currencies circumvent all the sanctions than we could face direct bans on cryptos even if we had nothing to do with the Russian sanctions. It would shed a bad light on cryptos again.
Also I think that cryptos are no real alternative for the swift system to save Russian banks. Most of the bank subsidiaries in Europe deal in Euros, so they still would need to aquire large amounts of foreign currencies, just against cryptos and not the ruble. And then there are the large amounts of western companies who are leaving the Russian market. Which is having a big impact, a lot of employees are losing there jobs. I am not sure if cryptos could help here, because if it comes public that one of the major companies circumventes the sanctions it could become a PR debacle and ruin the public image.

That is not how it works. Actually, United States and Ukraine stretched it to cryptocurrencies and that includes exchange based on Russia.
Just like McDonald's they want them to pull out their businesses there or it will be a bigger problem for them in the future. They are watching and even Coinbase and Binance are being talked about their Russian users to be blocked.
War is way different today. Not that I like it but you can sit in your room with a computer and internet and be part of it.

While big crypto exchanges aren't going to block all Russian accounts because, the way Binance explained it, they're not sure if it's legal to do that (and they're probably right that it's not), they are restricting those accounts that can be linked to government or belonging to people who are under sanctions. But I agree that avoiding these restrictions on a small-scale is possible (if the amounts of money are not big enough to raise concerns and there's a bunch of people involved). Putting large funds into or pulling them out of Bitcoin can prove much harder. Also, there isn't much to sell for Bitcoin when reserved funds are frozen and many assets are frozen as well, not to mention that it seems to me Putin doesn't want to abandon ruble and is thus unlikely to approve transferring what's left of Russia's budget into something like Bitcoin. So it's all good.

For now this is the only thing on which Bitcoin or crypto could really play on on which transactions would be truly anonymous but speaking on evasion on sanctions then it is possible but still be hard
considering that there are situations which do really needed up for those typical transactions and transfers which needing those typical behavior.
Lots of sanctions had been applied against them but doesnt seem that they are been affected that much.

That would be quite a humiliating U-turn to make and quite pathetic even by Putin's standards, I dont believe it especially.   The plan of Russia and all the elite who rule over the population will be to avoid sanctions via gold which is a far larger market, longer established and also in demand by several trading partners.   The middle east values gold and also Asia especially China who are a massive potential customer and until a few years back had no gold at all in their reserves so they want Russia to trade that gold to them and also the oil.
  BTC really doesnt figure in all of this, the citizens will be aided I'd hope as they of course suffer the most from the poor actions of government like every country pretty much.

I am also with you here. Bitcoin or any other crypto won't be their first alternative choice here but rather other assets like gold. Remember, China banned crypto miners already. So how can they trade crypto with China? So possibly one of the first alternatives is via convert their money to Chinese Yuan or buy gold. Bitcoin as well as crypto may be part of the alternatives but I don't think it would be their main option. They need to consider the other countries that may possibly accept their trade.

It is not news that Russian companies has a lot of cryptocurrency tools at their disposal to evade sanctions, ransomware and digital ruble are examples. I think the sanctions being imposed on Russia is even to their benefits mostly because the global market for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets has ballooned. My main concern is what the united states in up-to, legalizing cryptocurrencies in the middle of this war which in my own opinion was masterminded by the US is too much of a coincidence.

It is reported that Binance, Coinbase and Kraken are refusing to freeze Russian crypto accounts. However, it does not appear that these companies have received an official request from the their government to freeze these accounts. It was just an informal appeal from the Ukrainian government to impose such sanctions. Thus, if stronger sanctions are imposed against Russia, it is possible that these companies will follow the same path.

As to Russia itself or its banks and huge companies, I think it's hard for them to evade sanctions through cryptocurrencies. But to the Russians who are now deprived of ways to transmit money from their country to the other parts of the world and vice versa, crypto could help. Crypto could also help those who are keeping cash savings as the value of the ruble is spiraling down. And we also know that a lot of Russians are leaving the country. They are limited as to the amount of cash they could carry. Bitcoin is a great option.

It's definitely hard, but in my opinion, it's not impossible. What use is POW in Bitcoin, what use is the preservation of decentralization and censorship-resistance? How long must the protocol keep chugging along until everyone understands the true nature of Bitcoin?

China banned it for citizens, but if Russian oligarchs could get their hands on some Chinese officials and make deals with them, I am sure it could be done. However I also believe that Russians could find some other nations to deal with as well.

I mean this is crypto and where it came from could be hidden if you are rich enough, all you have to do is get some "things" in return of your crypto, and that way you could cash that out in the future or even own things as well. Like they could literally use crypto to buy land area or ports with the money they have. For some reason Russians love ports, and that is what they could do with the money they turn into crypto (I mean oligarchs, not regular citizens)

They can adopt yuan temporarily while their main currency is been sanctioned by many entity. And this will be good to china since it possibly create demand for their own fiat also. They can start to mock up with USD as this could divide the demand of USD since there's yuan that might change everything in economic state. For now China is the solution of Russia so to win this war against western they should cooperate and do some strategic work together.

Crypto are just one of many solutions for Russia to avoid sanctions, Russia has been hoarding foreign exchange and gold for years, showing that it has taken this worst-case scenario into account.
Russia is a great power that won't easily stop fighting unless Ukraine makes concessions. If this war is prolonged, it will affect all the economies of the world, not just crypto, we will enter a new post-pandemic economic crisis.
What we all hope is that the war will end and everything will be back to the way it was.

The use of Bitcoin to evade sanctions is limited primarily because of the nature of the sanctions themselves. Currently, the strongest sanctions are directed at Russia's oil and gas, the country's lifeblood. The US has banned all of Russia's oil and gas. EU countries have also greatly reduced their dependence on Russian oil and gas imports. Germany has also halted the Nord Stream 2 gas project.

Financial sanctions include freezing the Russian central bank's hundreds of billions of dollar reserves, freezing the assets of Russian oligarchs, among others.

Huge international companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Pepsi, Starbucks, Heineken, Shell, ExxonMobil, Levi's, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and many others have also implemented their own version of sanctions.

In all of these, Bitcoin couldn't be used as a tool of evasion.

That is good if they have more alternative. I don't mean to feel positive towards Russia and I won't forget what they did with Ukraine but what I mean is the blame won't be put all directly to bitcoin or cryptos. China banned cryptos miners already but I think that was long time ago and I think there was a news last time that they re allow it again and also if mining is only banned, the trade can still continue.

Not only in the country of china but you are forgetting the fact that cryptos are online, which means it can be traded on other countries too. Oil is their main option because they have lots of it and then followed by crypto and last is gold.

That's true, but they can start mining Bitcoin by using their stockpiles of oil, and their unused supply of natural gas, and sell virgin Bitcoins, which has higher value.


That cannot be debated, but as a protocol, and an open, permissionless system that can't be turned off by third parties, wouldn't you agree that Bitcoin is useful? That's where it starts. The dark markets/black markets are next.

Russia is not alone in this crisis. The European Union will also be hit with unprecedented sanctions, alongside the rest of the world. However, this crisis will not be solved by Western sanctions, because they can be bypassed by using physical gold and digital money. The West is trying to weaken the Russian state, but if sanctions will be maintained long-term, it will not only end up weakening the EU but the United States too.

Well, it's not gonna make them evade the current sanctions but I think it's worth it. Russia should explore Bitcoin mining considering that they have abundant supply of oil and gas. They have the resources to build the largest Bitcoin mining farm in the world. In effect, they will also be earning huge in a currency that cannot be bullied nor censored.

But I wonder how western countries would begin to treat Bitcoin if Russia is fully into it.


I completely agree, although, again, there might be grave repercussions as to Bitcoin's perception once the enemy is making the most out of it. Western countries and the western media might once again paint Bitcoin in a bad light. Moreover, Bitcoin regulations would definitely be at its tightest.

They treat it the same like how they currently treat it. They fear it because they don't truly understand it, I believe no one has. But if Russia starts HODLing it, and start using the protocol as a point for censorship-resistance, transacting with a country like El Salvador, or Iran, Pakistan, weakening the West's political stronghold, I believe game theory would suggest that the West should HODL too, as a hedge.


That's another topic, but the Honey Badger don't care.


It's ironic that many people believe that matters because the design decisions made by the Core developers were for decentralization, and censorship-resistance. "Regulations" don't exist in the blockchain.

Ok... imagine this scenario.

Russia buy some electronic goods from China and they tell them that the payment will be in the form of Gold coins. Will the US now ban Gold coins, because they sanctioned Russia and used the Banking system (SWIFT) to stop international money transfers?

Russia has many ways to pay for goods and services, even if they use offshore accounts or having to re-direct the payments through friendly countries. (Do you really think Russia has stopped selling Oil and Gas.... and how do you think they are getting paid?)

Also, we are talking about Billions of Dollars worth of bitcoins that needs to be bought ...and we are not seeing that on Exchanges. (...it is hard to offramp crypto in large amounts.)

Let's not forget this.... people worldwide are sending millions of dollars in BTC [Bitcoin] to Ukrainians to support them.  ;)

I don't know for sure what it will be but Russia is really prepared for all the possibilities that will happen in the future,
that is indeed what is feared if the war continues and prolongs without knowing when it will end,
that's true even though looking at the current condition it's not an easy thing but we all have hope like that

Yes, the whole world has already realized that russia will drag everyone to the bottom without busting. Maybe, if they could at least lose with dignity, they would have at least a drop of respect from others. Their corresponding sanctions against the West look ridiculous. This is a gesture of an offended child, who has already been kicked out of the playground, and everyone wants to forget about him, but he continues to offend others from where he is no longer heard. And these insults no longer play any role.


Yes, let's stop fighting and just go with the flow. This is the best advice in life. If you are beaten, you have to endure. If yours is taken away, just give it away in silence. This is very wise, because it will wipe you off the face of the earth much sooner. And this is your goal, because with this approach your life is not worth respect, meaning or existence. Therefore, it is better to die as soon as possible. And even better to do that, so no one finds out about it. Because your murderer must recreate the image of liberator and savior. He killed you to do better for you. Didn't you realize that before you died?

They can, they will.


It's not that hard, if there's demand. Bitcoin, because of the way it is built, it has an inclination to go to where it's needed, and the inclination to lessen friction, and make inefficient transfers of value more efficient by removing third parties.

I believe that if we are talking about huge companies then we are definitely seeing something a bit harder for them. However, we are talking about a situation where things are not as obvious as you might think. I believe that we are talking about a situation where if the owners of those banks and all end up getting their money out somehow, then we are talking about something that is a bit more understandable.

After all, it is not about the nation having zero contacts with outside world, it is a bit more about how they could end up getting the money out, and if they can get the money out then they have at least some connections and that matters a lot.

I believe that there is a good case to be made about Crypto being used for many things that is against governments and that is a good thing. I mean it could be used in a good way or a bad way but being out of reach from governments is always great. I pay taxes on my crypto income when I cash that out, but if I keep like a million dollars (I wish lmao) in crypto then I can keep it there and never pay a tax.

I believe taxes are what keeps nations strong but if the nation we are talking about is corrupted then we should not be too thrilled about it. People in UK or USA or France or Italy or Germany may feel the same, but they at least have decent governments.

You are right, for now Russia has many closed doors due to the high blocks that are provided from the USA, so one of the ways that it has to escape from it is through cryptocurrencies, in this case BTC. If on the contrary, the only strong nation that has full support for Russia is CHINA, and because of this they can do two things, firstly use the Chinese stablecoin, and on the other hand they have the option of using BTC and cryptocurrencies.
This is an open market, Russia is not totally closed, also from the East I am sure they will get support, Syria gives Russia support in whatever they ask for, it is a matter of time while Russia gets some oxygen.

All this takes time, and time is now playing against them. Perhaps we can now say that cryptocurrencies and the preserved ties between russia, China, Syria and a number of unrecognized territories such as Abkhazia or Transnistria may add some life to russia's dying economy. However, it takes time for these sparks to change the situation a little. And over time, the situation will worsen and this help will be small, because it will not be adapted to conditions that change too quickly.

Sanctions are not a complete game-changer when it comes to crypto adoption in Russia.

If your average Russian starts using crypto, this will devalue the ruble even more - that, in turn, would weaken Russia’s power. The Russian government will never allow their own currency to lose value, in exchange for non-government-specific one. Every time Russians exchange their rubles for Bitcoins, the Bitcoin price will grow, because the demand will affect the market, and the ruble will crash further.

In addition, the Russian government issued new laws that limit Russian citizens from sending, receiving, and transacting with any foreign currency. Russian citizens must convert 80% of the total sum into rubles in three days, or risk getting fined. So, even if you reside in Russia, and trade your cryptocurrencies into USD or EUR, you will need to switch it to rubles, therefore mass adoption ir practically impossible. Less than 0,3% of the total global net worth is currently in crypto. Let’s transfer this to Russia - even if 0,3% of Russians hold a lot of cryptocurrencies, that’s still a very small number. In circumstances like these, sudden and unexpected mass adoption within the country is simply impossible.

Crypto is just too small to make a real difference for them!

This video explains the situation pretty well:
https://youtu.be/2vVj6jAuBNE (https://youtu.be/2vVj6jAuBNE)

The economy is very changeable, now we are seeing the havoc that it is wreaking in Europe, there could be a great shortage of gas, as there is, then this will increase everything that has to do with energy matters, apparently if the war intensifies the The one that is experiencing the sanctions now with more force is Europe and now it has to try to find another supplier for oil, for gas, and I think it will be much more expensive than the one provided by Russia, now I think that Putin had considered this scenario and therefore That's why everything is happening that way.

Russia's move to legalize bitcoin is an important thing, the cryptocurrencies community is growing and has now reached more than 500 million users globally, this is certainly an advantage for Russia if it is subject to sanctions by legalizing cryptocurrencies.

These things are temporary things though, it is not like changing the whole system of Europe or the whole economy. Do you really think that one or two year of horrible economy would disturb the whole of Europe? I mean look at 2008, we had Spain and Greece almost dying out, and Europe got together and fixed them all and allowed them to get better. This is why I have to say that it is not really a big deal for them to be in a horrible situation right now, all of the citizens will live a horrible few years at the worst case but then they could recover.

The difference between Europe and other nations is that if you have a horrible few years in Europe, it is easy to recover, but if you live horrible few years in another nation, there is a chance you could stay like that for a long time.

Exactly as you said. It's not just Russia that benefits, but crypto activists as a whole.
And I think the Russian president has also prepared for this possibility long ago. And through cryptocurrency blocking from various countries to Russia becomes less influential. Because Russia can still trade freely through cryptocurrencies because crypto is a market that is open to all. And hard to limit.

Cryptocurrencies are one of the most viable options for Russia to evade sanctions.  Russia can use the bitcoins to pay for imports of goods and services that it might otherwise find difficult to access due to restrictions from the US and Europe.

Crypto are not controlled by the US or Europe or any other country, Russia accepts cryptocurrencies under the siege of sanctions, this may have been in Putin's plan. Like they accept bitcoin payment for friendly countries but still I am wondering if those countries accept bitcoin like Russia. Therefore, whether paying with bitcoin to import goods is really effective or not is still a question mark.

It's a good step if Russia legalizes cryptocurrencies and accepts crypto for transactions with other countries, of course this will have a big impact for countries that want transactions with Russia to automatically legalize cryptocurrencies, and I'm sure Russia is currently making crypto prepared for transactions as a substitute fiat.

If that really happens I think it's a great development especially in cryptocurrencies,
we all know that Russia is a big country so when Russia legalizes cryptocurrency and prepares everything for fiat replacement maybe it will trigger other big countries to do the same,
apart from that we need to take a closer look and follow the progress

Anonymous and decentralized cryptocurrencies shined even more when the Russian invasion of Ukraine occurred, now the discourse on the use of crypto for gas and oil transactions is increasingly massive, of course Russia sees a large market opportunity from crypto so that by legalizing crypto there will be no country blocking assets or finances because crypto is freedom.

For now Russia still have lots of options even with these so called harshest sanctions from the west. They can utilize cryptocurrencies and economic giants like China, India and Brazil. I even believe that many of these western countries are just trying to show the world and the public that they are doing their best to destroy Russia's economy. Germany for example, wanted to block oil sanctions. North Korea, Iran and Turkey utilizing cryptocurrencies are also common and it won't be surprising if Russia is secretly doing massive transactions already.

Understand one simple thought - if the Russian economy were self-sufficient, perhaps the accumulation of income in cryptocurrency could support the domestic economy. But the problem is that the Russian economy is globally dependent on Western goods and technologies!!! As practice has shown, the Russian economy essentially collapsed just a month after the first sanctions, and not the most severe! That is, in order for the economy to work, Russia needs to buy technology and goods from the West. And in the West there are legal means of payment - the dollar, the euro, the yen. But there is no cryptocurrency, rubles, and other under-currencies! Or these under-currencies, it will be necessary to somehow convert them into normal currencies :)

Perhaps you are referring to the amendments that have been made in Russia lately as a movement in Russia to legalize bitcoins? According to them, it will be possible for Russian citizens to have cryptocurrency on centralized exchanges, which will be completely controlled by the government, or on their wallets, if citizens provide the secret keys to them to the relevant supervisory authorities. Having cryptocurrency and not reporting it to the authorized bodies will be considered a crime and punishable by large prison terms. But perhaps for Putin's slaves, this is still a fairly high degree of freedom. Therefore, the people in Russia actively support the actions of their king. Well, they brought him to power, let them rejoice now.

I think that the only way that they can restrict any country from BTC or any technology that has to do with BTC is that they do not have electricity or internet service, it is the only way for it not to enter, otherwise it is with BTC or not, they will get ahead with the restrictions, sometimes I don't know why so much indolence towards RUSSIA when there are also people who suffer who don't like war, in these cases some may see BTC as bad because money arrives there without problems, but it is necessary to highlight which can also increase demand and in turn over time will generate a high value in fiat, translating into a high price value.

Why do I always see the same information that everything is bad in Russia, sanctions will destroy it and stuff like that? Doesn't anyone think that everything can be completely different from what it seems at first glance? Well, probably not, because propaganda is such a thing, however, as far as cryptocurrencies are concerned, why not? What will prevent Russia and, by the way, other countries that are under sanctions from using cryptocurrencies for their own convenience? Well, except that all cryptocurrencies were created by the West, for example, the United States, which means that everything they tell us about the reliability of cryptocurrencies is complete nonsense. But if, nevertheless, this is not the case and cryptocurrencies were indeed created in order to have an alternative for settlements at such moments, then it turns out that cryptocurrencies help Russia to have an income and make the payments it needs. Based on this, it turns out that cryptocurrencies will be able to help Russia survive in this difficult time.

Tell me, no offense only, you don’t understand how sanctions work and what is their task?
Let me ask one more question - why, for example, Russia will not be saved from sanctions by cowrie shells, or the fruits of a fig tree? Well, the countries that are under sanctions, agree tomorrow and decide that among them, now the most important currency will be the cowrie shell, and that's all, the sanctions are bypassed? So ? Silly, I agree.
And now the question is - please describe the chain of steps to circumvent sanctions, using cryptocurrency, for example ... well, let there be a package of sanctions prohibiting the supply to Russia from the USA, Canada, Britain and Australia of industrial equipment for drilling geological exploration of wells, as well as equipment for oil production? And once you start thinking about the chain, you will realize that cowrie shells are not a bad option :)

Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, so it's easy enough to "evade" sanctions by conducting crypto-to-crypto payments from one country to another. The real challenge would be converting crypto to Fiat, as all on/off ramps will be shut down for good because of the sanctions. Only in-person trades or P2P platforms will allow Russia to exchange crypto for Ruble and vice versa. Because of crypto's decentralized nature, some countries are beginning to tighten regulations in order to prevent Russia from evading sanctions as much as possible (even though they won't succeed in the long run).

What can truly stop crypto is if the whole Internet is shut down for good. But that is almost impossible to achieve. No one knows what's in Putin's mind right now, so we can only hope for the best. Just my thoughts ;D

This is the right step because any country will not be able to stop cryptocurrencies, if Russia uses cryptocurrencies for transactions, it will certainly make the transaction volume increase significantly, for example, Russian gas transactions can reach billions of dollars for a single transaction.

It may be a "fire-fighting" option for Russia but will not avoid additional western goals, Bitriver is a prime example with sanctions goals, if Russia can legalize bitcoin by  In a reasonable manner
- they are completely justified to maintain the economy with minimal risk.  Since they have a potential crypto market with an estimated 124 billion USD
- they have the 3rd largest bitcoin mining center in the world.

 With these evidences, exposure to legalization of bitcoin offers a lot of potential for them in my opinion.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov would like to freeze all of Russia completely ;D   Russia can use mining. I think it's a matter of time. Russia may use crypto exchanges that do not comply with sanctions or do not have control systems. This is one of the well-known options for circumventing sanctions.

It will actually be more of a hindrance to the long term success of cryptocurrency if Russia started using it more in an attempt to bypass sanctions or earn new sources of revenue. It would slowly bring the attention of more politicians if they discovered it was supplying a source of revenue, or way for them to move around money outside of the traditional banking system which has them pretty cut off. Once those sirens start going it might very quickly lead to bans on wider usage, along with the guise of energy preservation, which would be extremely damaging for any current holders of cryptocurrency. Let's hope Putin continues to discourage it's use and mining.

since beginning Rusia want use cryptocurrency as alternative payment from any trades if sanction from any countries come. Mr president also know how big crypto potency for their income by taxes and other regulations. even Ukranian get benefit from donation that used cryptocurrency, and from here we know how usefull this currency when all central bank suspend each others.

I don't see significant activity related to cryptocurrency in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Initially there were some fundraisers for Ukraine, which accumulated a few million USD worth of crypto, but nowadays I am not hearing much about it. And there were also reports of Russia using cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. But I haven't found any concrete evidence for this. There is hardly any uptick in the crypto volumes within Russia. So there is no supporting evidence to claim something like this.

You are right, although the rhetoric of the Central Bank of Russia has softened significantly in relation to cryptocurrencies (against the background of the initial intentions to completely ban them), but Russia's interest in cryptocurrencies lies more in the plane of mining - as a good opportunity to utilize excess energy resources than as a tool to circumvent sanctions. It seems that Russia has learned to live well under the conditions of permanent sanctions, which intensified in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, including how to circumvent them.

Looks like it's just news and rumors so we can't find any real evidence,
because if it is true that Russia uses crypto to evade sanctions then there should be traceable evidence,
The most important thing is to just keep up with the developments

Yes. Russia embracing crypto just to avoid economic sanctions, will give a bad picture of the whole industry. This will force countries to take drastic measures against crypto/Blockchain tech in order to minimize its growth worldwide. I'd prefer Russia to steer clear from crypto in order to prevent other countries from declaring it "illegal" for mainstream use. Of course, crypto will still survive because of its decentralized and censorship-resistant design. But it wouldn't be as widely used as before since people will be afraid of getting into it in order to avoid being prosecuted by the government. No one knows what's in Putin's mind right now so we can only hope for the best. Just my thoughts ;D

I do not think that is true, countries are not going to decide to ban cryptocurrency just for the fact that Russia is making use of it. Moreover we are not even sure of all these things that people are saying, although we do know for sure that they declared it legal in their country and that cryptocurrency mining is also allowed.

But, what I would want to say is that no country would be banning cryptocurrency just for this, countries who would ban cryptocurrency will do that with or without Russia making use of it. And countries that want to accept it will also do the same. Do not forget that during the war between Ukraine and Russia, cryptocurrency was put to a good use and a lot of people were able to use it to donate in support of Ukraine.

This is the same strategy that was used by Iran to evade sanctions, and it worked out pretty well for them. But after a few months, Iran faced crippling power shortages and was forced to impose restrictions on cryptocurrency mining. I don't think that Russia faces any such issue, as they have surplus electricity. The only issue is that they need to import the mining and cooling equipment from China. But even that should not be a problem, since Russia is having very strong economic relationship with their southern neighbors.

You do know that only Russians who are making use of centralized exchanges would have their cryptocurrency accounts frozen? Only exchanges such as Coinbase, and the rest of them which are being regulated can carry out such activity, but that wouldn’t be the same for When it is an unregulated or a decentralized exchange. Decentralized exchanges are not controlled by anyone, and users are free to do whatever they want to do without any restrictions.

So, such action might have been taken but it wouldn’t be all Russians that were affected, because there would be some of them who are making use of decentralized exchanges.

Russia has various ways to avoid sanctions, especially since Russia has a gas that is needed by Europe, Crypto planned for payment of Russian gas contracts will be very helpful and make Crypto's marketing will rise significantly because the volume of very large gas transactions can reach hundreds of billions per month.

Yes that's correct. it is not correct to say that crypto also imposed sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine. Although I have also heard rumors that crypto will freeze all wallets of crypto holders from Russia, I don't think this will happen. Crypto is not regulated by any country. And there is no solid evidence that Crypto was also involved in sanctioning Russia. actually there are many benefits of crypto during the war, I have always believed that crypto is a platform to keep money safe from various government politics in the country ranging from inflation to even being useful in distributing donations to war victims as it is today.

Russia doesn't go to war with Ukraine if they are afraid of international sanctions, I even believe that before starting the war the Russians had
calculated the worst that would happen to them. After all, the sanctions that Russia has now received are not the first time, Russia has been
under sanctions before, so they must have experience dealing with them. As you said Russia has several avenues to deal with these international
sanctions, maybe crypto can be a solution for Russia in conducting transactions. Which some of the world's financial institutions freeze all
transactions related to Russia, so by using crypto, Russia can still carry out financial transactions and can avoid sanctions. Then we can't blame
crypto for that, because crypto depends on the user, there are still many positive things that crypto can give.

Exactly. It would be foolish enough to use centralized exchanges when they're required by law to comply with government regulations. Russians have no other choice but to use decentralized exchanges or P2P trading platforms in order to get access to crypto. Of course, this will be quite a challenging task to achieve since alternative methods have a certain number of limitations behind them.

How will Russia be able to trade crypto to Ruble or vice versa effectively through decentralized alternatives is a mystery. Even if the government doesn't approve the use of crypto among its citizens, it can still use it in secret to evade sanctions. The US and EU are aware of this, so they're tightening regulations with the hopes of preventing Russia from gaining access to crypto as much as possible. They won't succeed completely (due to crypto being decentralized), but at least they will have a certain impact over the Russian economy. The future doesn't seem bright for Russia, so citizens should be prepared for the worst. Just my opinion :)

It would be very helpful but by the end of the day we are talking about Russia wanting ruble to get a lot more attention and used hence why crypto probably won't be used so much. Everyone wanted Russia to use bitcoin for this situation and like use it for hundreds of billions of dollars worth of deals but the reality is that it would have helped Europe because nobody would have dealt with Ruble in that case.

Thanks to them ignoring crypto and focusing more on Ruble and demanding Ruble payments for the transactions, that resulted with Russia to keep their money valuable. I mean imagine being sanctioned off and hated by the whole world and still keeping a good economy, that is a success if you ask me.

Similar issue of this nature is already playing out in the situation between Israel and Iran. BingX has been called out to be rendering some sort of support to the Iranians by allowing them carry out transaction which is aiding their terrorist actions, this obviously is against the rules by the regulatory bodies.

Seems like isn't a fair play either because from the comment section, someone wrote about Coinbase banning some Russia account. Meanwhile the cex you mentioned I learnt they have no kyc it can actually lead to illegal activities. Not like all of them are into illegal act but the case in which kyc isn't needed to withdraw a huge amount of money is quite alarming

The uniqueness of today's Russia lies in the fact that there are written laws for citizens, but unwritten ones for the elite and Putin's entourage. Colossal amounts of money are now being spent on the war in Ukraine, and Putin, in order to remain in power, only has to increase spending on it. Therefore, they are forced to put pressure on businesses and ordinary citizens, and to prevent capital from leaving the country, to prohibit the full use of cryptocurrency.

At the same time, with the approval of Putin, cryptocurrency is clearly used there, including to circumvent sanctions and carry out various financial transactions, where this is, of course, possible. This forum has already discussed Russia's crypto-currency assistance to Hamas before their attack on Israel in October last year. Undoubtedly, there are many such examples.

Exactly. Who's to say government officials are using crypto to circumvent sanctions? I'd bet Putin and Russian oligarchs are already doing this. Of course, citizens will be prohibited from doing such a thing. It's what usually happens in authoritarian countries. I think China is in the same boat.

There's nothing the West can do to stop this, especially when crypto/Blockchain tech is decentralized. They'd need to shut down the whole Internet to make it happen. But you and I know that's impossible. Maybe crypto will become the main source of funding for Putin's "war machine" in the long run? :D

Even if cryptocurrency were an ideal way to bypass international sanctions, it would not be enough to do so. Finance is only half the story. The second half is the movement of sanctioned goods. If you can try to hide the movement of cryptocurrency from international regulatory authorities, then it will not be possible to quietly move sanctioned goods regularly and in large volumes.

But in general, for Russia it is a constant search for new opportunities to circumvent sanctions, and for the United States and the West - a search for opportunities to stop them. It would be much easier for Russia to stop the aggression against Ukraine and thus stop the sanctions. Sanctions are gradually isolating Russia from international innovation and setting its development back decades. If the Kremlin has chosen this path, let them live with it.

That was a smart move by Putin and it's a smart move for most exchanges to do this too, I mean if it's against the Russian government, I don't think that they would easily comply to anti Russian matters with the ability of the Russian government to easily silence all the people that are against their rule and how they do thing and with it's army of Russian hackers that are constantly raiding different important places in the cyberspace, I think that it's for the best that they'll let things be with Russia evading sanctions through the use of cryptocurrencies, another thing that would make all of this ineffective and futile if there ever was the case that they do it is from the fact that Russia can just buy and sell stuff that they need through trading with countries that haven't complied with any sanctions against them, that's what they've been doing with all of the products that have a sanction against Russia, they buy it at an allied country and sell it for premium in the motherland.

I think many politicians are already well aware of cryptocurrencies and its implications if used. Some of them probably use it already but in secret and the decentralized nature of crypto plays largely to their advantage.
[quotej
or way for them to move around money outside of the traditional banking system which has them pretty cut off.
[/quote]
They will only start acting once they find out that some people from the government other than them has started using crypto. They just don’t want to be one upped and any concern they will raise are just futile excuses.

Cryptocurrencies are a drop in the ocean in terms of helping a country to overcome economic sanctions. You might seem curious but Russians aren't as sanctioned and limited as many think. Many countries buy products for Russia and deliver them, for example, Armenia buys 10000 Mercedes car, then Russia buys from Armenia and that's how Russia gets rid of sanctions. Also, as far as I know, many companies changed brand identity in Russia to bypass regulations and restrictions.
Sanctions are stupid to my mind, with or without cryptocurrencies, Russia can evade many of them. Btw cryptocurrency mining will be very cheap for Russia because electricity rates are very cheap and China is their neighbour.

It is not about sanctioning your money but it is the identity attached to that money.  So when they sanction or prohibit russian governments then they will mark the people and not just their bank accounts.  So they will be prohibited to use any accounts with their name on it.

Banning crypto in a country is the same as banning a gust of wind. The wind will blow in the direction he wants. Maybe crypto exchanges could ban accounts from Russia. But Russia could also create its own crypto exchange by allowing crypto accounts from all over the country. Automatically the transaction will run smoothly. I think it is illogical to prohibit such a ban. It's the same as blocking fast water.

Regarding what sanctions help Russia with cryptocurrencies. Of course there are many. Transactions with any country are not detected via crypto channels. Even Russia can carry out transactions with NATO member countries. It is not impossible for NATO members to be good friends with Russia.

Well given the fact that sanctions can hurt the economy of a specific country I think it is wise to use cryptocurrency to evade such action from the west and it's allies. I think this is also the reason why there is worldwide adoption of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies due to that issue and no one wants restriction in times of war or crisis as money is very important in acquiring new military  hardwares and other stuff to add strength and as multipliers to keep em going. Therefore cryptocurrency itself plays an important role in every situation especially in times of sanctions, crisis, inflation and more.

Why can't they just produce their own items? It's far better than having to depend on another country for supplies, goods, etc. By pegging the value of cryptocurrencies to oil, Russia would be able to carry on as usual with sanctions in play. It's likely government officials are doing it in secret. Who knows? Even China could be doing it (despite banning Bitcoin in public). You can't stop decentralization.

Imagine what would happen if countries started ditching Fiat currencies in favor of crypto. The global order will change in ways we couldn't imagine. Let's hope there would be peace among all sides (Russia & Ukraine) soon. Nobody likes wars, right?

I also hear that they go over it by using third nations instead. So Russia sells something to X nation, then X nation sells that to Germany, that way Germany still buys from Russia, the only difference is that X nation makes money in the middle instead. Makes things more expensive for Germany to buy, and makes things cheaper for Russia to sell, because that difference will go to X nation instead.

However, that still doesn't mean that sanctions work, it just doesn't work for either, not for Europe, not for Russia, both are still dealing with each other. When you combine all the ways sanctions are broken there isn't really all that much that still stays unused, it is trading and all nations are dealing with each other aside from maybe a few products.

Technical progress has already advanced so far that no specific country can no longer produce on its territory all the goods that it needs. This is especially true for states with a small territory. Therefore, thanks to the market economy and the development of ties between states, a kind of cooperation occurs between states, depending on their availability of natural resources, geographic location, degree of industrial development and a number of other factors.

But under the conditions of rather harsh sanctions that violate this actual division of labor, Russia has virtually no chance of development, especially in the field of advanced technologies, against which the sanctions are mainly directed. Russia is already doomed to technologically lag behind most developed countries, because sanctions will not be lifted in the short and even medium term, because the damage to Ukraine has been significant and the lifting of sanctions will most likely be made dependent on the degree of compensation for the damage caused, and Russia’s high ambition will not allow the Kremlin to agree on the proposed conditions for lifting sanctions.

Cryptocurrency also cannot save Russia in the current situation. The main buyers of its oil and gas, China and India, have a rather negative attitude towards cryptocurrency. In general, states are not interested in using cryptocurrency in international trade, primarily because they cannot control it, as well as because of the unpredictability and high price volatility of this market.

And they can even lie and say negative things to crypto only for the public to not suspect them. Well, they are wrong with that but that action alone can make them untrustworthy already.

Also, if they want to hide their shady deeds, then they better use a more private crypto like Monero, Zcash, and Dashcoin because BTC is still transparent and someone who use it can still possibly be traced by viewing their transactions in the Blockchain. If ever they found other crypto users that are also from the government, I don't think they will react negatively because that was their bro's and sis. They will even became friends and will talk about their future plans with it.

I didn't mean your example but that's true and I don't see any point in that. They sanction Russia but then buy from the middleman which results in significantly expensive prices and problematic delivery. You have a pipeline with Russia, just get gas through it, what's the point of a middleman buying it for you from Russia, and then delivering it to you? I don't know. It's not a boycott, it's something else.
My country for example, took the advantage of this situation and many rich Russian people flew here, started businesses, are paying enormously high money in rent, our local currency became very stable because of the dollars that they bought with them when they came here. I know that long-term, it will be devastating because Russians are massively buying houses, getting citizenship, investing money in businesses and acquiring them. Soon we will be the work class and they'll be business owners and landlords here.
This war is not doing any good to anyone.

This perception that cryptocurrency can be a way for countries to evade sanctions, organizations and individuals to launder drug money and terrorism is what is making people to have biased opinions about crypto in general. It looks as if cryptocurrencies are being created for the wrong reasons, meanwhile a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, was created for privacy and freedom from any centralized third party. I don't know how far, any country can evade sanctions through cryptocurrency, but all I know is that it's not meant for any negative purposes.

As for the Ukraine, vice prime minister demanding exchanges to freeze all Russian accounts will not make any meaning, so far the exchanges are not affiliated to Ukraine.

You have spoken well here. I found it so annoying when I saw how cryptocurrencies are being used to torment citizens in a country which affects the country in general. This was not the reason why this technology came into existence and I think the government is abusing it with all the regulations and sanctions to users. The idea was not to control people with cryptocurrencies sanction it was to create a new financial system that would be faster and as well ease the stress of the traditional financial system. Now it is something that the government uses to fight the citizens.

Exactly.

Another thing is, the west are sanctioning many countries that have lots of natural energy/metal reserves but in the end they are effectively sanctioning themselves.

So when Russia has lots of natural gas and oil but the west doesn’t want to buy from them, Russia sells their gas to China and India. Then the West pays India more money to buy the same Russian gas.

Russia makes money, India makes money, guess who is getting robbed… The European tax payers.

Natural gas flowed from Russia to European countries in large part through Ukrainian pipelines and through the territory of Ukraine. Such gas is still delivered to the EU in limited volumes, since some EU countries need some time to completely abandon Russian gas. The treaty, which was concluded between Russia and Ukraine even before the full-scale attack on Ukraine, expires this year 2024. Ukraine continues to fulfill the terms of the agreement on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine in order to avoid possible lawsuits and not lose the image of a reliable partner. But the Ukrainian authorities have already made a statement several times that after the expiration of the agreement on the transit of Russian gas on December 31, 2024, they do not intend to extend its validity. Therefore, the situation with Russian gas supplies is changing and will continue to change. The main thing is that EU countries are looking for ways to completely abandon Russian gas, and this time will come anyway.

Of course. They can use some sort of "proxy" that would deliver the weapons for them. Or they can just produce chips and weapons in-house to avoid sanctions. We all know the West's efforts to cripple Russia's war machine aren't working. They've only managed to slow down Russia. Not stop it.

I think the main reason why the West (particularly, the US) have been aggressive towards crypto is because they believe Russia (and other sanctioned countries) are using it to circumvent sanctions. They will increase regulations, making it difficult for Russia to buy/sell crypto. That won't stop DEXs or P2P trading platforms, though. But at least, it's a workaround. Hopefully, Russia gets back on the World Stage by cooperating with the West. Everybody wants peace, right? :D

China is also a country that is not friendly to cryptocurrencies, but they are a strategic partner and ally of Russia. So I don't think Russia is using crypto to avoid sanctions and Western countries are being aggressive with crypto because of Russia.

Basically, so far the US and its allies have launched the 14th sanctions package on the Russian economy and will not stop. But that shows they have failed to punish Russia 13 times before. Politics is something very big, complex and dark, it goes beyond what we see and what we think. So I guess Russia has hundreds of ways to survive without cryptocurrency like we think.

But Russia should probably start using some of their Oil output to fuel industrial mining farms and mine Bitcoin. If they can't export and/or smuggle it all, then they should find more "experimental" ways to "export" them. The censorship-resistant path is through Proof Of Work through Bitcoin. 8)

they still can sell their oil to different countries though. particularly to India which countries from the West are buying from India. making Inida the middleman. they are earning money through the oil and gas coming from Russia. Russia's economy isn't as bad as the rest of the world.

they might not need BTC anymore but if they are going to be mining, they'd probably trust developers that are from Russia such as Vitalik. which means mining ETH will make sense for them as well besides BTC.

I'm merely making a point that Bitcoin's Proof Of Work is a mechanism for burning something physical, such as Russian Oil, to produce something digital - An asset that's censorship-resistant, which is absolutely useful for a sanctioned country. Russia, Iran, Venezuela are countries that should mine Bitcoin with their Oil outputs.


Ethereum is Proof Of Stake.


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Russia and China are using crypto, including USDT for transactions with one another. This way they avoid sanctions and make payments much faster and more unnoticeably to the outside world.On the official agenda, they may be against cryptocurrencies, but this does not mean that they do not use them for personal gain.

i doubt their government uses the USDT, it would mean a large amount of sending USDT. if it's a known address, those USDT can be frozen. and they find it not in their best interest, remember they are dedollarizing. but the citizens i think in China and Russia could still be using stablecoins including the USDT.

the government of Russia and China do have their own version of SWIFT, they may be using them already if not their CBDC.

USDT is a stable and centralized currency, every transaction will be tracked, especially large transactions. Meanwhile, both are close allies, meaning both central banks can communicate and connect easily with each other. Do you think they will use USDT while they can use the currency of 1 of 2 countries to trade? I don't think they are stupid enough to use centralized cryptocurrency like USDT for their transactions to avoid sanctions. Using USDT is even more dangerous than using USD because their cryptocurrency transactions can be frozen at any time if the US requests Tether to do so.

I don't know what basis you base your claim that China and Russia are using cryptocurrencies for their transactions, but according to my understanding, they don't need cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, XRM... let alone centralized stablecoins.