Freedom For Eurasia and State Capture Accountability Project welcome the measures announced by the UK Government on 26 May 2026 to sanction illicit financial infrastructure — including cryptocurrency exchanges and “A7 network” — used to move funds, procure goods, and sustain Russia’s war economy. Through these actions, the UK is explicitly recognizing that this Kremlin-backed network has been exploiting Kyrgyzstan’s financial system to channel funds in support of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
This action matters. The A7 network has claimed to have moved in excess of $90 billion in a single year — a figure roughly equivalent to half of Russia’s annual military expenditure. A Kyrgyz bank is among the entities suspected of facilitating payments for this network. The UK’s decision to name and sanction those responsible sends a strong and unambiguous message that the international community is watching, and that the use of Central Asian financial intermediaries as a backdoor into the Russian war economy will not go uncontested.
We are equally encouraged by the UK’s targeting of cryptocurrency infrastructure, including a major global exchange suspected of channelling over $1.5 billion back into the Kremlin’s hands. As Russia has increasingly turned to digital assets and shadow financial systems to circumvent Western restrictions, it is essential that sanctions regimes evolve at the same pace. The UK’s willingness to act decisively in this space sets an important precedent.
These designations complement our own advocacy and investigative work on Kyrgyzstan’s role as a transit jurisdiction for sanctioned goods, dual-use technology, and illicit financial flows. Kyrgyz authorities should take this moment seriously: continued inaction in the face of documented evasion activity carries real consequences — for Kyrgyzstan’s international standing, its access to correspondent banking, and its relationships with Western partners.
We call on the EU and US to take equally targeted action against the A7 network and its Kyrgyz-linked nodes, and we call on all three jurisdictions to sustain close coordination to prevent evasion actors from exploiting gaps between their respective regimes.
We commend the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper for action, and we stand ready to support further efforts to expose, disrupt, and dismantle the networks sustaining Putin’s war machine.