The US authorities are trying their best and putting all efforts to maintain and gradually tighten the imposed punitive sanctions on Russia
Since the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out when the former invaded the latter, the US and its allies, European countries imposed punitive sanctions on the country. Still, the war hasn’t stopped at all; rather, it has increased in intensity since then. However, the US authorities keenly observed and kept an eye on Russia so that it could not evade the sanctions. As the crypto was in doubt that the country could use them to bypass the transaction, the US started tightening the sanctions and banning entities that could help Russia do so.
The US government added a crypto mining firm Bitriver based in Russia to its sanctions list against the country on Wednesday. This is part of the States’ efforts to block Russia-based firms from accessing the financial network globally. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department, which handles the sanctions list of the US, has added ten more subsidiaries along with Bitriver. OFAC stated that the companies were operating in the Russian financial technology sector.
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In a statement, the Treasury said that it is taking action against those companies and firms involved in the cryptocurrency mining industry in Russia. These companies could help Russia to monetize its resources to evade the sanctions by operating huge and vast server farms that work to sell digital assets mining capabilities globally. It’s quite clear that Russia has a competitive advantage in crypto mining because of its cold climate and energy resources. However, such crypto mining companies are vulnerable to sanctions as they rely on fiat payments and computer equipment that need to be imported from other countries.
The Office of Foreign Asset Control did not add any bitcoin or other crypto wallet addresses in its list that could be associated with the companies added in sanctioned companies, unlike some other crypto related sanctions. Earlier, at the end of February, the Us has put sanctions on various key businesses and Russian oligarchs, hoping that the financial penalties would follow along and result in President Vladimir Putin for withdrawal of his troops.
Similar actions include the blockade of Russian banks from the international nack connections network, SWIFT. After being listed in the sanctions list, Bitriver has not responded to anything yet.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/04/22/why-did-the-us-sanctions-list-add-russian-crypto-miner-host-bitriver/