Jack Paul 
Senior officials take seats at A7
Three of Russia’s most senior officials have joined the board of A7, the payments firm the U.S. Treasury labeled a transnational criminal organization on October 1. Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov are now directors, according to the company. The move puts senior government figures directly inside a firm that U.S. authorities say helps Russia move money around Western banking restrictions. I think the timing matters. It came just two weeks after the designation.
Why A7 matters for Russian trade
A7 was set up in 2024 by Promsvyazbank, the state lender that serves Russia’s defense sector, and Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor. The U.S. Treasury has described Shor as a convicted fraudster. PSB holds a 49% stake. Western sanctions have cut many of the banking links Russian companies used to pay foreign suppliers. Trade with China, Russia’s biggest partner, has been hit hard. A7 says it replaces those links by sending payments through a network of companies in other countries. The firm claims channels like its own now handle up to 80% of the payments behind Russia’s foreign trade. That figure is hard to verify independently, but it shows how central the network has become. As of January 2026, A7 was processing more than 2,000 transactions a day, according to the U.S. Treasury. Those transactions were worth about 13% of Russia’s foreign-trade flows in 2025, roughly 81.44 billion euros ($91.5 billion).
Sanctions, FinCEN and the A7A5 token
A7’s designation came under Operation Economic Outcast, a U.S. campaign aimed at Iran. The Treasury said Iran’s central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had used A7’s channels. Alongside the designation, FinCEN proposed a rule that would block transfers involving A7’s front companies, which it calls Sub-Agents. The measure would cover fiat and crypto and bind roughly 348,000 institutions, crypto exchanges included. FinCEN says more than 180 entities moved at least $179.1 billion through A7’s A7A5 token between February 2025 and June 2026.
A7A5 was launched in Kyrgyzstan in 2025. It is a stablecoin backed by ruble deposits held at PSB. PSB estimates cumulative turnover has reached about $140 billion. The company and the token have been under U.S. sanctions since August 2025. Blockchain firm TRM Labs traced more than $166 billion in crypto activity linked to A7. Cryptopolitan has reported that A7 used a mix of regular bank transfers, USDT and A7A5. On October 8, the UK announced sanctions on 38 targets, including three crypto exchanges and two payment platforms. The UK said two of those sanctioned handled transactions with the A7 network. That suggests the pressure is not only coming from Washington.