HONG KONG – Oleg Ogienko, Head of Overseas and Regulatory Affairs at A7A5, is looking to debate anyone who accuses him of violating any compliance laws through his stablecoin company.
Speaking to CoinDesk during Consensus Hong Kong, the public face of ruble-denominated stablecoin issuer A7A5, which grew faster last year than USDT or USDC, emphasized that like any stablecoin issuer, compliance with the laws of the place where it is incorporated is key (in this case, Kyrgyzstan), and criminals are not welcome on the platform.
“We fully comply with Kyrgyz regulations. We do not do illegal things,” he said, emphasizing the issuer’s regular audits. “We have KYC procedures and AML mechanisms built into our infrastructure. We do not violate any Financial Action Task Force principles.”
But here’s the problem: A7A5’s issuing and affiliated entities, Old Vector LLC and A7 LLC, and the bank that holds the reserves, Promsvyazbank (PSB), are sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, preventing the dollar-denominated financial world from interacting with them.
So while the company’s subsidiaries are restricted by the United States (whose laws underpin most global trade), being used by Russian companies to avoid sanctions is not a crime in Kyrgyzstan (where A7A5 is based) or Russia.
A7A5 facilitates cross-border payments for Russian users facing banking restrictions, while also providing a route to market-leading USDT liquidity through decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols without directly holding dollar stablecoins.
In fact, the squeeze became one of the driving forces behind the stablecoin’s astonishing growth. It added nearly $90 billion in circulating supply last year, surpassing USDT, which added $49 billion, and Circle’s USDC, which added about $31 billion, according to Artemis data.
Beyond sanctions
Ogienko admitted that life under sanctions puts pressure on people and limits access to some Western goods and services.
However, he argued that it has not stopped business activity or cross-border trade, describing the restrictions as an obstacle rather than an economic dead end and creating a market where there is demand for the A7A5.
Ogienko said the main demand for the A7A5 comes from companies in Asia, Africa and South America that trade with Russian exporters and importers and need cross-border payment mechanisms.
At this time, liquidity is limited because centralized exchanges will not list the token due to the risk of secondary sanctions. There are DeFi liquidity pools where A7A5 can be exchanged for USDT, although A7A5’s own dashboard says there are only around 50,000 USDT available.
Ogienko says he was in Hong Kong trying to fix that, using the trip to Consensus to meet with exchanges and other blockchains (without giving specific names) to build partnerships.
“We have been deployed on Tron and Ethereum, and now we are thinking about deploying them on other blockchains… we are here to cooperate with them,” he said.
While the company was not a sponsor of Consensus, having a US-sanctioned entity at any conference could make organizers and sponsors nervous, even when their sponsorships are technically legal in some regions. This was developed at Token2049 in Singapore, where A7A5 was a sponsor, organized by BOB Group, registered in Hong Kong, a jurisdiction without sanctions on Russia. BOB, however, later removed references to A7A5 from the lists, after concerns were raised from other sponsors.
Still, the sanctions and politics surrounding the restrictions do not hinder Ogienko’s ambition to grow his business.
“We believe we can grow the trade volumes settled on A7A5…we hope to be able to realize more than 20% of Russia’s trade deals with different countries on A7A5,” he said.
However, A7A5 cannot yet be used in Russia as lawmakers are still drafting regulations for stablecoins.
Ogienko said he is in contact with the country’s authorities and described the relationship as consultative and focused on blockchain regulation and financial infrastructure rather than direct government control.
“We are not politicians. We are merchants. We are businessmen,” he said, emphasizing neutrality. “We are open to commercial cooperation with any country.”
Read more: The most influential: Oleg Ogienko
