Russian finance minister and two deputies join sanctioned A7 payments board

• Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev, and First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov joined A7’s board on October 15 (Thursday)
• A7 processed more than 2,000 transactions daily as of January 2026, totaling $91.5 billion or roughly 13% of Russia’s 2025 foreign trade flows
• The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed blocking all A7 transactions across roughly 348,000 institutions, including crypto exchanges, effective immediately

• $91.5 billion A7’s annual transaction value compared to 13% of Russia’s 2025 foreign trade
• $179.1 billion Cumulative crypto moved through A7A5 token between February 2025 and June 2026
• October 1 U.S. Treasury sanctions date versus October 15 board appointments, 14 days apart

Russia’s three most senior economic officials joined the board of A7, a payments firm that routes cross-border transactions through networks in Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, according to the government’s press office announced Thursday. The appointments come exactly two weeks after the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to the U.S. Treasury, designated A7 as a transnational criminal organization used by Iran to evade sanctions and disguise illicit payments as ordinary trade. The board expansion underscores Moscow’s explicit reliance on the network as Western sanctions have severed traditional banking channels, particularly affecting trade with China, Russia’s largest partner.

Three cabinet ministers assume board seats two weeks after U.S. Treasury sanctions designation

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev and First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov have joined A7’s board, the government’s press office confirmed Thursday. The appointments represent an explicit political endorsement of a network that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has described as infrastructure enabling “Iran and other adversaries to evade sanctions, move illicit funds, and undermine the integrity of the global financial system.”

Treasury is dismantling the financial infrastructure that allows Iran and other adversaries to evade sanctions, move illicit funds, and undermine the integrity of the global financial system. Today’s action targeting A7 continues Treasury’s unprecedented efforts to isolate Iran and its financial enablers.

Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary

A7 was established in 2024 by Promsvyazbank, a state-owned Russian bank focused on defense sector lending that retains a 49% stake, together with Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, whom the Treasury has identified as a “sanctioned and convicted criminal fraudster.”

A7 processes $91.5 billion annually through stablecoin and sub-agent networks evading detection

As of January 2026, A7 was processing more than 2,000 transactions daily, collectively representing approximately $91.5 billion in annual flow, or roughly 13% of Russia’s total 2025 foreign trade, according to the Treasury.

The network operates by routing payments through sub-agents in third-party jurisdictions that falsify trade documents and import-export records to disguise sanctioned transactions as ordinary commerce.

A7 relies on the A7A5 ruble-backed stablecoin, launched in Kyrgyzstan in 2025 and collateralized by deposits held at Promsvyazbank, which the Treasury says has processed $179.1 billion in crypto activity since February 2025.

The Treasury estimates cumulative stablecoin turnover has reached $140 billion, making A7A5 one of the largest ruble-denominated digital assets outside official Russian channels.

FinCEN’s proposed rule would bind 348,000 institutions to block A7 transactions across fiat and crypto

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an arm of the Treasury Department, has proposed a rule that would require approximately 348,000 institutions, including cryptocurrency exchanges, traditional banks and payment platforms, to block transfers involving A7’s network of sub-agents.

The measure, if finalized, would apply to both fiat and cryptocurrency transfers and represents an unprecedented attempt to enforce sanctions at the rails level across dual-track financial systems.

The rule leaves a material enforcement gap unresolved: how exchanges and financial institutions will identify A7 sub-agents operating under shell company names across multiple jurisdictions, particularly when those entities continuously rebrand and migrate across regulatory borders.

Crypto exchanges have demonstrated inconsistent compliance with similar measures; the recent designation of Iran’s central bank as a sanctions target, announced in the Treasury’s Operation Economic Outcast campaign, still showed continued activity in decentralized finance protocols beyond traditional exchange rails.

The UK announced sanctions against 38 targets on October 8, including three crypto exchanges and two payment platforms, with two of those platforms having processed transactions through A7 networks.

The CCS read. We read the institutional crypto angle: custodians and prime brokers will face acute compliance costs as compliance teams manually identify sub-agents, and those costs will cascade to institutional desks funding emerging market trade. A7’s board appointments signal that Moscow sees this network as irreplaceable infrastructure rather than a temporary workaround, meaning enforcement will require either technological detection at the wallet level or political pressure that shifts Russian calculation on what trade flows are worth losing access to.

The Treasury has not disclosed a timeline for finalizing FinCEN’s proposed rule, and the effectiveness of the measure will depend on whether exchanges and financial institutions can operationalize identification of A7 sub-agents faster than the network can establish new shell entities and migrate payment flows to undesignated jurisdictions, a test that will clarify whether dual-track finance systems can be enforced against at scale or whether they have already become too distributed for traditional sanctions tools to reach.

Original reporting: cryptopolitan.com