Binance Blocks Digital Asset Accounts Of Relatives Linked To The Russian Government

The Binance digital asset exchange is taking more measures to prevent the Russian government from alleviating the impact of sanctions through the use of digital assets.

The crypto exchange has shut down a couple of accounts tied to relatives of senior Kremlin officials over the last 2 months since Russia started military action in Ukraine, as per a recent Bloomberg report.

As per the report, the affected individuals included Elizaveta Peskova, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, and Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. The exchange mentioned it had also blocked Kirill Malofeyev, the son of Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian oligarch who was earlier charged with infringing sanctions from the United States.

Binance’s recently appointed global head of sanctions, Chagri Poyraz, wrote on his LinkedIn page on Binance’s latest measures,

“Proud to be a part of this team that makes a real difference.”

As per Poyraz, Binance continues to monitor its platform for more individuals associated with sanctioned people who may be using its services.

He mentioned,

“What’s different is that our compliance screen operations are ‘proactive,’ aiming to detect and deter financial crime risk before any regulatory or legal action towards these individuals or entities.”

Notably, a couple of Russian officials, as well as their spouses and children, are prohibited from investing in digital assets at all, in compliance with Russia’s own laws.