Binance refutes the allegations made against it. Do you think Binance gave law enforcement access to the data of Russian users?

In reaction to a recent media report, Binance, a massive worldwide cryptocurrency exchange, vehemently denied it had assisted Russian authorities in tracking down payments to the opposition.

As per reports, Binance's chief of Eastern Europe and Russia, Gleb Kostarev, interacted with Russia's anti-money fraud agency, Rosfinmonitoring, in April. Moreover, as per Reuters' assessment of Kostarev's conversations, he "agreed to Rosfin's demand to disclose customer data." He even added that he didn't have "any kind of choice."

According to Reports, simultaneously, Rosfinmonitoring was exploring ways to trace cryptocurrency payments to the groups of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. After his murder attempt and subsequent detention in Russia in January 2021, Navalny earned large donations from admirers, including a spike in fresh funding.

Later on Friday, Binance published that "recommendations that Binance discussed any user information, including Alexei Navalny's, with Russian FSB-controlled departments and Russian regulatory authorities are utterly false." And also said that "Binance has not decided to seek valuable guidance and support the Russian state in its efforts to uncover Alexei Navalny."

The impact of the invasion.

Binance has actively sought to become a legal part of Russia's cryptocurrency ecosystem before the Russian attack on Ukraine last winter.

"Long before the war with Ukraine, Binance, just like any other blockchain company engaged in Russia, was actively working for Russia to build an appropriate crypto policy structure - an endeavour we are conducting in every region we operate in," Binance stated in response to CoinDesk.

Binance ceased taking payments using Visa as well as Mastercard bank cards issued by Russia when Visa and Mastercard itself disconnected Russian consumers from global money transfers following the invasion. This begs the question, isn’t access to data the right of every human being? Then why are we biased about certain regions? This is the reason why I am very bullish on projects like Point Network, Polygon, Theta, and many such Web 3.0 initiatives that are making data accessible to all.