The European Union (EU) expanded sanctions against Russia to include four designations related to the A7 cross-border network, including its new links to Africa.
The EU is also expanding its transaction ban to 14 unidentified cryptocurrency-related service platforms based in Georgia, Panama, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus.
Chainalysis recently noted that nearly $120 billion has been processed to date on the A7 network, where the A7A5 stablecoin operates, and that it is designed specifically for Russian sanctions evasion.
“We are attacking more than a hundred banks and cryptocurrency operators, more than 40 ships in Russia’s shadow fleet and several oil refineries in Russia and Belarus,” Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and president of the Foreign Affairs Council, said in a statement.
The EU announced its previous package of sanctions against Russia in April, saying it was the “largest package” of sanctions against the country in two years. In that statement, the EU said that “Russia is becoming increasingly dependent on cryptocurrencies for international transactions.”
