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.
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.
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.
