The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), together with the Office of the President of Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine, is expanding the “War Finance” section of the War&Sanctions portal. This time, information has been published on 14 banks, financial intermediaries, and payment systems that enable russia to conduct international transactions while circumventing sanctions restrictions.

Due to the sweeping sanctions imposed on russia’s financial sector, the aggressor state is forced to seek alternative channels for international payments. These include digital currencies, cross-border payment networks and financial infrastructure in countries that have not joined the sanctions regime.

The new publication exposes the activities of financial institutions facilitating these mechanisms. In particular:

• ▪️ Finzypay — a payment and cryptocurrency platform that carries out conversions and transfers using RubX, a digital asset pegged to the ruble and developed with the involvement of the state-owned corporation Rostec;
• ▪️ Asian-Pacific Bank — a financial institution conducting cross-border transactions through China’s CIPS interbank payment system and a Kazakh bank;
• ▪️ Sistema-Crypto — a russian fintech service belonging to the Sistema AFC group, which is linked to sanctioned russian oligarch vladimir evtushenkov.

Access to international payments is particularly important for russia’s military-industrial complex. Despite claims of so-called import substitution, the russian defence industry remains dependent on foreign electronic components, technological equipment, raw materials and other critical resources.

The operation of alternative financial channels, therefore, allows the aggressor to maintain essential international procurement and retain access to the components and technologies required for weapons production.

Disrupting such schemes will complicate international transactions for russia’s defence industry, weaken its supply chains, and limit the aggressor state’s ability to maintain its military capabilities.

At the same time, sanctions policy against russia gives the civilized world an opportunity to develop effective mechanisms for monitoring and restricting international financial transactions. In the future, such tools can be used to counter aggressor states and other bad-faith actors in the international financial system.