Binance Bans Accounts Linked to Russian Officials

Binance has banned many accounts linked to the Russian government as part of its ongoing efforts to prohibit the Russian government from using cryptocurrencies to mitigate the consequences of sanctions. Binance bans account with ties to the Kremlin.

Elizaveta Peskova, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, were affected by the new policy Binance restrictions, as per Bloomberg. Kirill Malofeyev, the son of Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian tycoon previously accused of breaking US sanctions. He was also prohibited, according to the business. In a Friday Twitter post, Mykhailo Fedorov, the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and also one of the major leaders behind the government's pro-cryptocurrency attitude, acknowledged Binance's bans. He also added that "everyone affiliated with Putin's administration will face the effects of the war."

The news broke as Binance has been working harder to cope with restrictions. Mainly they are fearful that Russians may use cryptocurrency to hide their money. Since its attack on Ukraine, Russia has been a major subject of sanctions storm. Even popular crypto companies like Binance have been actually pressured to exclude Russian customers. Following these unwanted contraints by goverments, many projects like Theta, The Graph , Point Network, and many more are trying to build a decentralized ecosystem which will be controlled autonomously by the people of its community, which cannot be blocked by any goverment.

Moving forward, Binance has previously introduced a set of limitations for Russian nationals and citizens on April 21. They forbade transactions on accounts worth more than 10,000 euros or up to $10,800. Due to Western sanctions placed on Russia, CEO Changpeng Zhao has claimed that the business will cooperate with restrictions. He also said that they will not "arbitrarily suspend millions of innocent customers' accounts."