The A7 crypto network, led by fugitive oligarch Ilan Șor, and the Russian company Inter RAO, which owns the Moldovan power plant in Cuciurgan (MGRES), are targeted in the 21st package of sanctions from the European Union against Russia, reports IPN.

The new package includes four new designations related to the A7 network, among which are recently identified connections with Africa. The network is associated by European institutions with support given to Moscow in evading international sanctions through crypto platforms.

The measure comes in parallel with the expansion of the trading ban for 14 cryptocurrency platforms registered in Georgia, Panama, United Arab Emirates, Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. At the same time, a tool was introduced for the first time that allows the EU to impose a total ban at the level of a third country for the crypto asset services used by Russia to evade sanctions.

At the same time, the EU Council has included the Russian company Inter RAO in the new sanctions list, which has owned the power plant in the Transnistrian region since 2005. Chisinau has not been purchasing energy from MGRES since 2024 and intends to put into operation, in August, the Isaccea-Vulcanesti-Chisinau power line, which bypasses the Cuciurgan power plant.

The 21st package of sanctions against Moscow as a result of the outbreak of the war of aggression in Ukraine was adopted on Thursday by the EU Council and targets the sectors with the greatest impact on the Russian economy: energy, financial services and cryptocurrencies. It contains the most extensive expansion of the list of sanctioned entities, 218 in total, of which 48 are individuals and 170 are companies, including refineries in Russia and Belarus, as well as companies related to the production of drones and drone components. The final list of sanctions now includes 250 individuals and over 660 companies.