Russian individuals are using crypto to bypass sanctions

[bitmover]

https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/lagarde-cryptos-are-being-used-to-bypass-sanctions-20220322
Lagarde: Russian individuals are using crypto to bypass sanctions
Lagarde says cryptos remain a threat while touting the digital euro

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said Russian firms and individuals are using cryptocurrencies to bypass sanctions put in place by the west.

“They are certainly being used as a way to try to circumvent the sanctions that have been decided by many countries around the world against Russia,” Lagarde told the Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Summit.

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

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

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

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[LFC_Bitcoin]

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

[Upgrade00]

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

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

[AmoreJaz]

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

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

[Kakmakr]

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

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

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

[darkangel11]

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

[DdmrDdmr]

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

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

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

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

[NeuroticFish]

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

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

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

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

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

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

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

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

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

Bitcoin being a threat to financial institutions.

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

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

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

[uneng]

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

[pooya87]

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

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

[Wind_FURY]

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

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

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

[TheNineClub]

https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/lagarde-cryptos-are-being-used-to-bypass-sanctions-20220322
Lagarde: Russian individuals are using crypto to bypass sanctions
Lagarde says cryptos remain a threat while touting the digital euro

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said Russian firms and individuals are using cryptocurrencies to bypass sanctions put in place by the west.

“They are certainly being used as a way to try to circumvent the sanctions that have been decided by many countries around the world against Russia,” Lagarde told the Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Summit.

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

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

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

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

[stompix]

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

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

Crypto assets, Lagarde added, "are certainly being used, as we speak, as a way to circumvent the sanctions that have been decided by many countries around the world against Russia and a specific number or players."
Some in the industry have said crypto presents an opportunity for Russia to mitigate the impact of the economic sanctions, but others have dismissed the idea. While the Russian private sector is showing signs of turning to crypto, the public sector is a different story.
~~~~~~
"You can't flip a switch overnight, and run a G-20 economy on cryptocurrency," said Michael Mosier, a deputy director at US enforcement agency FinCEN. "It's an access problem, it's a rails problem, and it's just a basic liquidity problem. Certainly, there's going to be an element [of crypto] that's part of their playbook. But it frankly isn't at the top of the list."
"I don't think cryptocurrency is a reasonable off-ramp for sanction evasions," he previously told Insider. "The combination of the lack of liquidity in the crypto market to sustain the Russian economy, as well as strict compliance controls in the larger crypto exchanges will make it impossible for the Russian central bank to even move any crypto.
And earlier this month, Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs at blockchain and risk management firm TRM Labs, said any government-level pivot to crypto this remains unlikely.
"

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

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

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

[hatshepsut93]

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

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

[SirLancelot]

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

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

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

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

[DapanasFruit]

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

[Fortify]

https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/lagarde-cryptos-are-being-used-to-bypass-sanctions-20220322
Lagarde: Russian individuals are using crypto to bypass sanctions
Lagarde says cryptos remain a threat while touting the digital euro

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said Russian firms and individuals are using cryptocurrencies to bypass sanctions put in place by the west.

“They are certainly being used as a way to try to circumvent the sanctions that have been decided by many countries around the world against Russia,” Lagarde told the Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Summit.

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

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

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

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

[fzkto]

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

[zasad@]

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

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