Russia Funded Hamas Militants Through Cryptocurrency - The Wall Street Journal

glavcom.ua

October 13, 2023

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Militants of Palestine on the eve of the invasion of Israel received millions of dollars through the largest ruble crypto exchange Garantex, located in "Moscow City", writes The Wall Street Journal.

Data from the analytical company Elliptic show that on the eve of the invasion of Israel, digital wallets controlled by the group "Palestinian Islamic Jihad" received a total of more than $93 million in transactions. A similar funding scheme was used by Hamas, according to researchers.

In June, the amount of transactions on the platform amounted to about $865 million, which is three times more than in April 2022, when the US Treasury introduced sanctions against Garantex.

A representative of the US Department of the Treasury told reporters that the department is looking at ways to introduce additional measures against those who use Garantex for cross-border transfers. Yevhena Burova, director of public relations of the crypto exchange, in a conversation with the WSJ, rejected all accusations against the site.

The Garantex crypto exchange was registered in Estonia in 2019, but is actually operated from the Federation Tower in Moscow City and is focused on Russia. After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Garantex became the main channel for withdrawing funds from Russia, and now, despite the US sanctions, it remains the most popular platform for trading in rubles.

It will be recalled that the Russian Embassy in Israel refused to evacuate Russians amid the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict . Instead, they are recommended to leave the country on their own, using regular flights.

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