Russia’s war effort in Ukraine might be faltering, but the Kremlin has a high-tech superweapon to neutralize Western sanctions. It is called A7. The state-backed payment network moves money in and out of Russia, defying U.S. and European efforts to isolate Moscow from the global banking system. A7 helps Russia pay for everything from military-drone parts to luxury cars to imported fruit, using a mix of cryptocurrency transactions and more-traditional banking methods…Behind its rapid rise is a convicted money launderer. A7’s founder, Ilan Shor, is best known for his role in one of the biggest bank heists in history: a complex scheme to extract $1 billion from three banks in Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, in 2014. A Moldovan court convicted him of fraud and money laundering for helping orchestrate the theft, but he fled the country while under house arrest. Shor has denied the allegations and called them politically motivated…

Founded less than two years ago, A7 says it handles nearly 20% of payments in Russian foreign trade, or more than $100 billion annually. President Vladimir Putin gave it his blessing in 2025, taking part by video link in the opening of an A7 branch office. Now, A7 is planning to take its services global and fulfill Putin’s vision of an alternative financial system outside the control of Washington or Brussels. Having recently opened its first offices abroad, in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, A7 says it is eyeing expansion into Latin America and the Middle East. Executives don’t hide their desire to serve countries seen as pariahs in the West. “Before, the Western system essentially enslaved the whole financial world, allowing the West to flip a switch at any time and stop any country from being able to make payments,” Shor told TASS, the Russian state news agency, in July 2026. “We give companies and countries freedom, because our system is immune to sanctions.” The U.S., U.K. and European Union have all sanctioned A7.

To skirt sanctions, A7 moves money through a network of shell companies in places such as Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Open Source Centre…Crypto is the other main tool that A7 uses, allowing it to bypass banks entirely. A7 backed the 2025 launch of A7A5, a digital token pegged to the value of Russia’s currency, the ruble. Blockchain analysts say A7A5 is used to pay for sanctioned goods by swapping it for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins, such as Tether. More than $2.2 billion has moved through one such A7A5 swapping service,,,

Excerpt from Alexander Osipovich, Russia’s Hottest Startup Is a State-Backed Sanctions Evasion Network, WSJ, Aug. 7, 2026