Earlier today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury updated its Specially Designated Nationals List, adding several individuals and a number of cryptocurrency addresses. One of the individuals added was Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits — a Russian national, accused of interfering in the U.S. elections. In addition to disclosing his personal information, the site lists a number of cryptocurrency addresses that he allegedly controls. One of the Ethereum addresses, found at 0xa7e5d5a720f06526557c513402f2e6b5fa20b00, does not seem to exist, however. Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury. There was likely a mixup somewhere in the chain of command and the Treasury meant to blacklist 0xA7e5d5A720f06526557c513402f2e6B5fA20b008 …

The U.S. filed criminal charges against Russian national Artem Lifshits for his management of an affiliate of the infamous Internet Research Agency, which U.S. authorities accuse of interfering in the 2016 election. The new complaint alleges that Lifshits has managed the translator department of Project Lakhta since 2017, in which capacity he illegally obtained U.S. identification documents in order to use "the means of identification of United States persons to open bank accounts, PayPal accounts, and cryptocurrency accounts." The charge is conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice says these accounts were a means for Lifshits and …

Sept. 10 updates to the U.S. Treasury's sanctions include Russian nationals who allegedly worked to interfere in U.S. elections. The updates specifically target a laundry list of crypto wallet addresses associated with these accused hackers. The new specially designated nationals include St. Petersburg residents Anton Nikolaeyvich Andreyev and Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits and addresses associated with these two including Bitcoin, Litecoin, ZCash, Dash and Ether. This is not the first time that the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control has targeted crypto addresses. In March, OFAC added two Chinese nationals who aided North Korea's hacking program in laundering its ill-gotten gains. …

As Russia is set to pilot a blockchain-based e-voting system, the country’s federal elections authority has provided public access to the platform’s source code. According to an official announcement by Russia’s Central Election Commission, or CEC, the source code for the e-voting system was partly released on GitHub on Sept. 7. The initial release included the source code for smart contracts and front-end elements of the e-voting platform like developer libraries and servers responsible for the vote count. According to the CEC, the internal elements of the e-voting platform are expected to be published on Sept. 10. At the time …

Recent data published by Chainalysis revealed a surprising first place for Ukraine in the Global Crypto Adoption Index 2020, followed by Russia and Venezuela. The index looks at three on-chain metrics: the total value of on-chain crypto transactions weighted by purchasing power per capita, or PPP, the value of on-chain retail transfers weighted by PPP, and the number of on-chain crypto deposits weighted by the number of internet users. The index also factors in the volume of trades made on peer-to-peer crypto exchanges weighted by both the number of internet users and PPP. The report shows uneven levels of development …

International cryptocurrency giant Binance is not going to give up launching the Binance Card in Russia despite the upcoming ban on crypto payments. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, is working on the rollout of its crypto debit card in Russia, a senior executive told Cointelegraph on Sept. 7. Gleb Kostarev, Binance’s head of operations for Russia and the CIS, says that the plan to introduce Binance Card in Russia comes in line with Binance’s mission to provide all users with the “same experience that is fully compliant with local regulations.” However, Binance is not ready …

Not unlike many other jurisdictions around the world, Russia has come to recognize the potential benefits and risks flowing from cryptocurrencies by taking its first step to define and codify digital assets. The new Russian legislation dubbed “On Digital Financial Assets” sets a clear direction for the treatment of cryptocurrencies by authorities and how both individuals and businesses can handle them in everyday practice. Nevertheless, the new legislation may give pause to payments companies and fintech companies keen on expanding into the Russian market. While the approach of the Russian legislature toward cryptocurrencies — or digital assets, as they are …

Authorities in Russia continue the game of ping pong in regulating cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) even after passing the country’s first crypto law. Russia’s Ministry of Finance has reportedly proposed a set of amendments to the law “On Digital Financial Assets,” or DFA, which bans many operations with crypto. According to local news agency Izvestia, the proposed amendments envision a “blanket ban on any operations with virtual money for individuals and individual entrepreneurs” except for three scenarios. The ministry reportedly wants to ban all crypto transactions except the obtaining of assets through inheritance, bankruptcy and enforcement proceedings. The amendments reportedly …

It has been a bad couple of weeks for pro-Bitcoin / anti-Putin activists in Russia. First, on August 20, opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned, and then on August 31, a prominent blogger Yegor Zhukov was beaten near his home by unknown assailants. Not only are they two of the nation’s most ardent critics of president Putin, but they have also accepted Bitcoin (BTC) donations in the past — though their support of cryptocurrency is probably not the inciting factor behind these attacks. More likely, they are being silenced because they are political activists who oppose the Russian government, and …

It is customary for government officials around the world to profess their disdain for crypto on the grounds that it is widely used to facilitate crime and finance terrorism. Although (government-backed) cash still remains criminals’ preferred financial tool by a wide margin, it is true that nefarious actors also turn to digital assets. When corrupt plans go sideways, law enforcement and other government agents can find themselves in possession of hefty sums of crypto. It appears that reports of such instances are becoming more common as crypto adoption widens. In August alone, the United States Department of Justice announced the …

On Aug. 30, a Github user made a post about losing 1,400 Bitcoin (BTC) via an elaborate hack that affected his Electrum wallet. On-chain analysis indicates that the hackers had a Binance account and that some of the transactions used to move the stolen coins may have originated in St. Petersburg, Russia. However, It is important to note that conclusions afforded by on-chain research are generally more probabilistic than deterministic. On-chain analysis of the hack. Source: Cointelegraph, Crystal Blockchain. Even so, there is no clarity on how the attack was perpetrated, as Electrum's software is considered to be secure if …

The Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov shared some harsh comments about cryptocurrencies amid growing interest in the technology amongst Chechnya’s citizens. According to Pravda, Kadyrov claimed that the media is presenting crypto “as the new gold,” provoking what he calls a kind of Bitcoin (BTC) “fever”: "People take loans, save on themselves and their families, invest their last money in digital assets that promise incredible profits." The head of the Chechen Republic, a federal subject of the Russian Federation, also warned that excess profit is tied with “big risks.” He also claimed that over the past month, “Bitcoin has depreciated in …