EU targets 11 offshore crypto platforms and 31 Russian banks in new Russia sanctions package

The European Union is preparing a new Russia sanctions package that for the first time pairs a broad expansion of banking measures with a focused crackdown on offshore crypto platforms alleged to be facilitating sanctions evasion. According to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and reporting on the forthcoming 21st sanctions package, the bloc plans asset freezes and transaction bans on around 90 banks overall and more than 30 Russian and third‑country banks, alongside measures against 11 cryptocurrency platforms accused of helping Moscow route payments around existing restrictions. The move follows earlier EU packages that progressively widened financial, energy and trade sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The crypto component is aimed at exchanges and platforms operating outside the EU that are believed to have processed transactions for Russian entities despite prior restrictions on providing crypto‑asset services to Russia. The measures would tighten an existing blanket EU ban on certain crypto services to designated third countries, and are part of a broader push to close sanctions‑evasion channels through jurisdictions such as Türkiye, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the UAE, India and China, where several non‑Russian companies are also expected to face new trade and export controls. On the banking side, the package extends asset freezes and transaction bans to dozens of additional institutions, reinforcing earlier steps that had already targeted key Russian banks and some third‑country financial institutions linked to Russia’s SPFS payment system. Strategically, the package underscores the EU’s shift from headline sanctions to enforcement and anti‑evasion measures focused on Russia’s financial plumbing and wartime supply chains. By simultaneously going after offshore crypto venues and a large number of banks, EU policymakers aim to make it harder for Russian state entities, defence‑linked firms and intermediaries in third countries to move value across borders, finance imports of dual‑use goods, or monetize energy exports. The sanctions are part of the EU’s long‑running effort to degrade Russia’s war‑financing capacity while coordinating with G7 partners on oil, banking and digital‑asset restrictions.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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