Russian Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Sending Crypto Assets to Ukrainian Military: Report

An employee of a diamond mining company in Russia was reportedly sentenced to seven years in prison for providing financial assistance to the military forces of Ukraine.

According to local media outlet Izvestia, a man from the Mirninsky district of Yakutia is now detained in a maximum security prison after using cryptocurrency to repeatedly transfer funds to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

The report says the man aided a unit of the AFU in carrying out intelligence and subversive activities against Russia by providing financial assistance. He is said to have received instructions to transfer funds to a digital wallet after joining a group on a social network.

Says Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), according to the report,

“A criminal case was initiated and investigated against a resident born in 1988 under Art. 275 (‘Treason in the form of financial assistance to a foreign state, international or foreign organization or their representatives in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation’) of the Criminal Code of Russia.”

Russia and Ukraine are taking advantage of crypto amid the ongoing war between the two countries. Following Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian government announced it was accepting crypto donations for wartime support.

Companies in Russia now use Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital currencies to engage in foreign trade as the nation faces Western sanctions.

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