Citing an internal European Commission document, the FT wrote the commission intends to abandon targeted sanctions aimed at individual crypto services linked to Russia in favor of a blanket prohibition. Officials in Brussels concluded that listing specific platforms is ineffective because new structures quickly appear to evade restrictions.
“In order to ensure that sanctions achieve their intended effect [the EU] prohibits to engage with any crypto asset service provider, or to make use of any platform allowing the transfer and exchange of crypto assets that is established in Russia,” the document reads.
The proposals are largely aimed at the ecosystem around the Russian crypto exchange Garantex, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2022. Another target is the payment platform A7 and its associated ruble stablecoin A7A5. Despite earlier restrictions by the EU, the United States, and the UK, analytics firm Elliptic reported in January that cumulative transactions involving that stablecoin exceeded $100 billion.
The European Commission has also proposed adding 20 banks to
its sanctions list and banning any transactions involving a digital ruble token
backed by the Russian central bank.