Russia Seeks to Bring Crypto Into Anti-Money Laundering System

Anna Starzhinskaya, a department head in the committee’s Main Investigative Directorate, represented Russia at the 20th session of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Asset Recovery, according to a Nov. 6 TASS report. The group operates under the UN Convention against Corruption and focuses on international cooperation to identify, recover and return criminal assets.

The committee said investigators already use specialized resources maintained by Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial intelligence agency, to examine crypto transactions and gather evidence. “Investigative authorities’ access to Rosfinmonitoring’s specialized resources makes it possible to track cryptocurrency transactions and obtain significant information to prove criminal activity,” it said in a statement translated from Russian.

Starzhinskaya also reported that investigators, working with operational services, financial intelligence units and regulators, identified and seized property worth more than $486 million in corruption cases during 2026. The committee said investigators made about 2,500 requests to Rosfinmonitoring during the year, and information from the agency helped locate assets that could be frozen or confiscated through legal proceedings. Over the past four years, the committee has arranged the execution of more than 6,000 requests for legal assistance across different types of criminal cases. Starzhinskaya urged countries to cooperate without political considerations and to meet their legal obligations on the basis of equality, mutual respect and reciprocity.

The proposal comes as Russia tightens oversight of digital assets. A cryptocurrency framework took effect on Sept. 1, providing for regulated trading, custody services and certain cross-border settlements under Bank of Russia supervision. In October, the central bank registered four exchange operators and five digital custodians, including institutions such as Sberbank and VTB. Rosfinmonitoring has also required digital depositories to collect customers’ taxpayer identification numbers. For transfers exceeding 60,000 rubles, covered institutions must collect and transmit details about senders and recipients. In August, the Bank of Russia blacklisted 2,600 crypto wallets after identifying more than 1 billion rubles in transactions flowing into them during the first half of 2026.