A network of middlemen operating on Telegram is openly advertising services to help Russian businesses bypass Western financial restrictions, offering to disguise the origin of payments to European suppliers.
In conversations with undercover journalists posing as Russian entrepreneurs, these brokers proposed routing money through companies in Hong Kong, Dubai, and Indonesia to obscure any links to Russia. One agent, identifying himself only as Dima, assured a reporter that “there will be no trace of the Russian company, and the payment will be successful” when asked to facilitate a transaction with a German drone manufacturer—a deal that would violate European Union sanctions.
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, Western nations have imposed sweeping restrictions on trade with Russia, cutting off major banks from the SWIFT payment system and banning exports of sensitive technology. These measures have spawned what analysts describe as a growing underground economy of payment facilitators.
Several brokers offered to use intermediary firms in third countries to issue invoices and handle transfers. One suggested keeping individual payments under $200,000 to avoid attracting scrutiny from financial regulators. Others promoted the use of cryptocurrency, particularly a ruble-pegged stablecoin called A7A5, which claims to handle nearly 20% of Russia’s international transactions.
According to Ilia Shumanov, a managing partner at TriTrace Investigations, Russia’s sanctions-evasion infrastructure is evolving faster than Western enforcement efforts. “This is a constantly evolving ecosystem backed by millions of dollars in investment, with clear support from the Russian state,” he said.
One proposed payment route involved a Canadian company called Grata Payments Ltd, whose key figures were linked to the TGR network—a business group that U.S. authorities have accused of running a money-laundering operation for Russian elites. The director of Grata denied any connection to sanctions evasion, saying he was unaware of activities on Telegram.
Researchers note that these operations often create multiple layers of intermediaries across different jurisdictions, making them difficult for law enforcement to tackle. Elise Thomas of the Centre for Information Resilience described the phenomenon as a “cottage industry of shady international payment service providers” that blends sophisticated cryptocurrency methods with traditional informal transfer systems.