MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. Complete blocking of the cryptocurrency market for Russians is impossible and cryptocurrencies will remain one of the most efficient tools to circumvent sanctions, said Anton Gorelkin, the Deputy Head of the Information Policy Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislative assembly.
“It should be recognized that complete blocking of this market for Russia is not possible. Cryptocurrencies will remain one of the most efficient tools to bypass sanctions, although USDT can be definitely stricken out of this list,” the lawmaker wrote on his Telegram channel.
The suspension of Garantex cryptocurrency exchange operations in Russia is not the last case when Western countries apply pressure to different elements of the cryptocurrency infrastructure, pursuing political goals, he noted.
The Garantex crypto exchange said earlier that it temporarily suspends all the services because exchange wallets were blocked by the Tether platform. The EU introduced sanctions against the Garantex exchange based in Russia in February 2025. The exchange is also under US sanctions since April 2022.