A Russian oligarch and top business executives are using A7, an influential payments company implicated a vast sanctions evasions scheme relying on a ruble-backed cryptocurrency, for their own transactions, according to a new investigation .
The findings, published on April 29 by the Russian news outlet Proyekt, add to a growing body evidence showing the scope of A7, the stablecoin A7A5 that has served as its primary currency and an operation that has received the Kremlin's own blessing.
A7 was founded in 2024 by Ilan Shor, an oligarch wanted in his home country of Moldova for his role in a massive bank theft more than a decade ago. Shor's partner in the company is PSB, a Moscow bank whose CEO is the son of Mikhail Fradkov, a former Russian prime minister and spy agency director. PSB has been sanctioned in the West for its role in financing Russia's military investments, as has A7.
SEE ALSO:
The Fugitive Oligarch, The Cryptocurrency, And A 'Wild' Kremlin-Blessed Sanctions Evasion SchemeWhen one of A7's physical branches opened in September 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the virtual ribbon-cutting.
Using legal entities based in Kyrgyzstan, A7 created a cryptocurrency called A7A5, which is billed as the world's first ruble-pegged stablecoin, backed by deposits held by PSB Bank.
Since its launch, A7A5 has recorded a "phenomenal" amount of transactions, leading money-laundering experts to conclude it is being used as a way to evade Western financial sanctions imposed on Russia in punishment for its war on Ukraine.
According to Proyekt's findings, A7 currently accounts for about 15 percent of all cross-border monetary transactions.
Among those using A7 for payments are Roman Abramovich, a billionaire oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, as well as former Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev, according to Proyekt.
Abramovich also serves as the "roof" -- a Russian criminal slang term to describe a person who looks out for another person or company -- for A7, the site reported, though Abramovich denied that assertion.
Other businesses that have used the company's system are linked to Novatek CEO Leonid Mikkelson, Kremlin-linked developer Arkady Rotenberg, and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who controls the sprawling conglomerate Systema.
Proyekt reported that an entity called the Trade Company of the Kyrgyz Republic may have used A7's systems to secretly pay for Russian gas supplies to Turkey following the sanctioning of Russian bank Gazprombank.
Western financial officials have struggled to keep up sanctions-evasions schemes that have popped up since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and in particular, the payments and transactions companies and individuals have used to skirt those sanctions.
A7 had been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union. Also targeted for Western sanctions are the currency exchanges where users can convert A7A5 or other cryptocurrencies into so-called real world currencies like US dollars or euros.
One of those exchanges, Grinex, which is Kyrgyz-licensed, recently announced it was suspending operations after the theft of the equivalent of $13 million, a theft it blamed on "foreign intelligence services."