Unveiling A7's Crypto Empire: A $8 Billion Pipeline Fueling Russia's Shadow Politics

A massive leak of internal documents from a Putin ally's firm, A7, reveals a sophisticated financial network that moved $8 billion in stablecoins to evade sanctions and influence Moldova's politics. The documents tie A7 to Russia's Promsvyazbank and detail a mix of cash, notes, and crypto for cross-border payments. A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin, was built to bypass sanctions with billions in trading volume. The leak provides an unprecedented look inside the A7 group, which specializes in "sanctions evasion-as-a-service."

A massive leak of internal documents from a Putin ally's firm, A7, has revealed a sophisticated financial network that moved $8 billion in stablecoins to evade sanctions and influence Moldova's politics. The documents tie A7 to Russia's Promsvyazbank and detail a mix of cash, notes, and cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin, was built to bypass sanctions with billions in trading volume. The leak provides an unprecedented look inside the A7 group, which specializes in "sanctions evasion-as-a-service."

Leaked files show Ilan Shor’s A7 group moved $8 billion in stablecoins to evade sanctions and influence Moldova’s politics A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1]. Documents tie A7 to Russia’s Promsvyazbank and detail a mix of cash, notes, and crypto for cross-border payments. The leaks reveal A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin built to bypass sanctions with billions in trading volume.

The leaks reveal that Ilan Shor’s A7 group moved $8 billion in stablecoins to evade sanctions and influence Moldova’s politics A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1]. Documents tie A7 to Russia’s Promsvyazbank and detail a mix of cash, notes, and crypto for cross-border payments. The leaks reveal A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin built to bypass sanctions with billions in trading volume.

According to Elliptic, the company is partially owned by Russia’s state-owned Promsvyazbank (PSB), a bank itself sanctioned for financing Russia’s defense industry, cementing A7’s role as a de facto arm of the state’s financial warfare apparatus A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1].

The scale of that operation is staggering. In a speech to Vladimir Putin in early September, Shor boasted that A7 had facilitated 7.5 trillion rubles, equivalent to roughly $89 billion, in cross-border transactions for Russian businesses in just ten months A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1].

The scheme blends traditional tools like cash and promissory notes with a heavy reliance on cryptocurrency, particularly Tether’s USDT, to move value across borders outside the controlled traditional financial system A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1].

A7 in action
This dependence on crypto is laid bare in internal chat logs where employees casually discuss multimillion-dollar USDT transfers for treasury management. In one exchange, a user named “athena1098” requests two million USDT for “treasury,” a transaction that alone identified a wallet with more than $677 million in flow A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1].

Recognizing the vulnerability of relying on a USDT stablecoin that could be frozen by its issuer, A7 developed its own alternative: A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin. With 41.6 billion tokens in circulation valued at nearly $500 million, A7A5 was engineered to be sanctions-proof A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1].

Leaked chats from April 2025 show employees discussing a concerted market-making effort, with A7 wallets sending at least $2 billion in USDT to exchanges to buy A7A5 and build liquidity, creating a self-contained financial ecosystem insulated from Western pressure A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1].

The leaks provide an unprecedented look inside the A7 group, which specializes in "sanctions evasion-as-a-service" A7 leaks expose $8b crypto pipeline fueling Russia’s shadow politics^[1]. The firm's reliance on cryptocurrencies and its own ruble-backed stablecoin, A7A5, highlights the growing role of digital assets in circumventing traditional financial systems.