Russia’s energy minister, first deputy prime minister, and finance minister now sit on the board of A7, a payments firm the U.S. Treasury labeled a transnational criminal organization two weeks earlier. The new directors are Sergei Tsivilev, Denis Manturov, and Anton Siluanov. It is not clear whether the appointments change A7’s daily operations, but they do put senior government figures on record alongside a company under U.S. sanctions.

Board Appointments Follow U.S. Designation

On October 1, the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated A7 as a transnational criminal organization. The listing covered addresses in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. A7 was set up in 2024 by Promsvyazbank, the state lender that serves Russia’s defense sector, together with Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor. The U.S. Treasury has described Shor as a convicted fraudster. PSB holds a 49% stake in the firm.

A7’s Payment Role Draws Scrutiny

Western sanctions have cut off many banking links Russian companies once used to pay foreign suppliers. Trade with China, Russia’s biggest partner, has been hit especially hard. A7 replaces those links by sending payments through a network of companies in other countries. A7 says channels like its own now handle up to 80% of the payments behind Russia’s foreign trade. As of January 2026, A7 was processing more than 2,000 transactions a day, according to the U.S. Treasury. Those transactions were worth about 13% of Russia’s foreign-trade flows in 2025, roughly 81.44 billion euros, or $91.5 billion.

New Rules and UK Action

The designation came under Operation Economic Outcast, a campaign aimed at Iran. The U.S. Treasury said Iran’s central bank and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had used A7’s channels. FinCEN also proposed a rule that would block transfers involving A7 front companies, which it calls Sub-Agents. The measure would affect fiat and crypto and bind roughly 348,000 institutions, crypto exchanges included. FinCEN says more than 180 entities moved at least $179.1 billion through A7’s A7A5 token between February 2025 and June 2026. A7A5 was launched in Kyrgyzstan in 2025. It is a stablecoin backed by ruble deposits held at PSB. PSB estimates cumulative turnover has reached about $140 billion. The company and the token have been under U.S. sanctions since August 2025. Cryptopolitan has reported that A7 used a mix of regular bank transfers and the cryptocurrencies USDT and A7A5. TRM Labs traced more than $166 billion in crypto activity linked to A7. On October 8, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced sanctions on 38 targets, including three crypto exchanges, two payment platforms, and one individual. The UK said two of those sanctioned handled transactions with the A7 network.