Binance blocked accounts of the relatives of Kremlin officials

The exchange refused to provide services to the Foreign Minister’s stepdaughter and the daughter of the Russian President’s spokesman

29.04.2022 - 08:25

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2 min

What’s new? The largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, began blocking accounts associated with relatives of senior Kremlin officials. The restrictions were imposed amid international economic sanctions against Russia. The crypto exchange reported Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Elizaveta Peskova, the daughter of President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov were among those blocked in the past two months. It is reported by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg’s material

What do the exchange’s representatives say? According to the company’s Vancouver-based global head of sanctions Chagri Poyraz, the exchange will continue its checks to uncover more people linked to individuals on the sanctions list. He added that the monitoring of crypto exchange users is proactive and aimed at identifying and deterring financial crime risks. Poyraz clarified that the restrictions are imposed before legal and regulatory action is taken against sanctioned individuals or entities.

What preceded it? On April 21, Binance imposed restrictions on Russian users. This is due to the crypto exchange’s compliance with the fifth package of EU sanctions against Russia. The restrictions affected accounts with an account amount exceeding €10 000. On April 22, Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of the Binance exchange, called the new EU restrictions against Russians “a historic aggressive action” and called for peace.

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