CITY OF LONDON–Senior executives from Russia’s mainstream banking sector have joined an avowedly sanctions-proof crypto and payments firm at the heart of the Kremlin’s strategy to disrupt the West, leaked documents show. 

The documents reveal, in granular detail, the emerging sanctions evasion tactics and election interference campaigns run by fugitive Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, who is backed by the Kremlin – as well as the significant amount of financial and human resources the 38-year-old tycoon appears to have at his command. 

Those resources include ex-department chiefs from large banking institutions such as Russia’s Sberbank, state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) and big consumer bank Russian Standard, who are listed as senior employees of the Russian cross-border payments company A7, run by Shor, according to internal documents released in a data leak this month. 

This article was published in collaboration with Romanian outlet, Context.ro.

A7 was launched with Russian defence bank Promsvyazbank (PSB) earlier this year, and includes the A7A5 ruble-backed stablecoin. Reporting by The Financial Times suggested that A7A5 had conducted $9 billion worth of transactions in the first four months after launch.

George Voloshin, a global financial crime expert at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, told reporter.london that the partnership between Ilan Shor and Promsvyazbank is “a kind of ‘outsourcing’ of state-backed sanctions evasion activity”. 

“The involvement of experienced finance professionals from major Russian banks provides the operational quality,” Voloshin continued, commenting on reporter.london’s findings. 

“These individuals bring a deep understanding of banking, trade finance and international payments. Their expertise allows them to structure complex transactions, manage liquidity.” 

POWERFUL TOOL

Russia, said Voloshin, has created a “parallel payment system” through A7, which is “crucial for enabling trade particularly for goods that are difficult to procure due to sanctions, e.g., dual-use items like microelectronics and drone components. By using stablecoins, Russian importers can pay for goods from countries like China and bypass the scrutiny of Western banks. The use of multiple intermediaries and shell companies in third countries such as Kyrgyzstan further obscures the ultimate destination of the funds and goods.”

The news also shows that Russia is allocating more resources to staying ahead of the West in the sanctions race.

“Russia’s efforts to evade sanctions are no longer simply reactive but have become a core part of its external trade policy. By combining the infrastructure of traditional state-backed finance with the anonymity and speed of cryptocurrency, Russia has created a powerful sanctions evasion tool that is increasingly difficult for Western governments to dismantle,” said Voloshin.

Former managers from the Russian branches of foreign banks such as Austria’s Raiffeisen, Italy’s UniCredit and France’s Societe Generale are also listed as senior employees of A7, reporter.london found. 

The United Kingdom, European Union, and United States sanctioned A7 in August over its role in election interference in Moldova. Moldova’s government has accused Shor of masterminding a Russian-backed vote-buying campaign ahead of parliamentary elections later this month as well as widespread sanctions evasion. 

Shor was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2023 by a Moldovan court for money laundering offences related to the country’s “Theft of the Century” – the $1bn looting of the largest banks in Moldova’s financial system. He denies the charges against him. 

Shor has also been working with Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, according to Western governments and media reporting.

Shor and his organisation did not reply to repeated requests for comment.

The importance of the A7 network, was marked in a press conference on 3 September, when Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the company’s new international payment processing centre in Vladivostok – which is closer to Asian markets than Moscow – alongside Shor and Promsvyazbank chairman Pyotr Fradkov. 

The data leak was publicised on social media in recent days and validated by Moldovan news agency IPN. 

The leak appears to have come from Anykey LLC, a Moscow IT company owned by a Shor associate. Files reveal how the IT firm provides software development and IT infrastructure to Shor’s A7 crypto and payments network, the Russian soft-power NGO Evraziya, where Shor is a member of the supervisory council, as well as several connected financial brokers in Kyrgyzstan. 

The exact number of people working across this cluster of Moscow finance, media and business logistics companies under Shor’s management is unclear, but a conservative estimate based on the leaked internal records suggests it could be around 500 people. 

The leak also led reporter.london to trace the background of Leonid Shumakov, the public face of the A7A5 ruble stablecoin, who is employed by another Russian company owned by Shor, Finvek LLC, and the Russian branch of a Seychelles company tied to Shor’s network. According to Russian-language websites, Shumakov – who was sanctioned by the UK in August – previously worked as foreign client lead for a Gazprom subsidiary. 

Shumakov did not reply to repeated requests to comment.

Documents in the leak also revealed a connection between a Russian legal entity and a Russian-language propaganda channel targeting Moldovan audiences. 

The Moldova24 online video channel – which echoes Kremlin talking points in its coverage of Moldova’s ongoing election cycle – was launched in September 2024 but has never disclosed where it is made or its parent legal entity. 

A document from the data leak shows that two well-known Moldovan journalists who are the public face of MD24, are listed as “hosts” for a Russian Limited Liability Company called Perspektiva. That LLC, other documents in the leak suggest, is managed as part of Shor’s group of  Moscow companies. 

Perspektiva did not reply to repeated requests for comment.

START-UP ENERGY

Other Russian-language jobs ads paint a picture of Shor’s sanctions-busting A7 payments company as an exciting new fintech start-up. “We’re a team,” says one A7 promo seen by reporter.london. “We discuss, make decisions, grow together – at strategic sessions, team building events and over coffee.”

“We don’t only work: we raise each other’s mood and create our own traditions,” another recruitment advert says.

A7 even has its own corporate psychologist, according to documents in the data leak.

Meanwhile, chat logs, included in the leak, shine a light on the chaotic start-up energy inside Shor’s operation, with users asking which nicknames belong to whom. 

“Can you please advice [sic] who is travolta?” one user asked. “Ilan,” an account named “admin” replied. “[The] chief.”

The IT company, Anykey, previously stated on its website that it had provided website, cloud and accountancy services to A7 and Evraziya. The page has since been deleted, but remains as a copy on independent internet archives. The company registration number listed on Anykey’s website matches an IT company of the same name. 

Adverts on a popular Russian jobs website shows that Anykey shares an address with branches of A7, Evrazia and another Shor-affiliated company, Exim International. 

Anykey did not reply to requests for comment. Its owner declined to comment on the same subject as covered by Moldovan outlet, Ziarul de Garda.

Analysis of cryptotrades has linked A7A5 to Garantex, a high-risk sanctioned Russian exchange, and its apparent successor, Grinex, now based in Kyrgyzstan.

Thomas Rowley is a journalist and editor specialising in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South Caucasus. Between 2015 and 2024, he was lead editor for the post-Soviet space at openDemocracy.