On 27 February 27, the Ukrainian government asked major cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze all accounts of users in Russia and Belarus. The request from the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation also asked exchanges to stop trading any ruble-related digital assets. Letters were sent to the addresses of the six largest online exchanges.
So far, cryptocurrency exchanges have declined the request. The world largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, said in a statement that they will not impose any blanket ban on users, pointing out that ‘A unilateral and total ban would punish ordinary Russian citizens.’ Reuters reported today that world’s second-largest exchange, Binance, announced no plans to ban Russian users, and the CEO of Kraken crypto exchange stated the same.
On 28 February, the US Department of Justice amended the regulation on economic sanctions on prominent Russian figures. The DoJ has obliged cryptocurrency exchanges to control digital asset flow and/or report any activity attempting to circumvent sanctions. It will take effect on 1 March.
The US Department of the Treasury issued a regulation which addresses how US businesses should comply with sanctions imposed to top Russian officials and business people. The Treasury warns the US citizens not to be involved in “transactions or dealings to circumvent any United States sanctions, including through the use of digital currencies or assets or the use of physical assets”
According to the article published by Bloomberg, the US Department of the Treasury also asked exchanges around the world to control the flow of digital assets, and comply with the sanctions.
Online cryptocurrency exchanges around the world work under the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) set of financial standards, and the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regulation against money laundry and financing of terrorism.
Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor now requires that the social media app TikTok stop showing military-oriented content to minors in their recommendations. Roskomnadzor noted that TikTok posted ‘content featuring the special military operation in Ukraine, as well as related political content targeting an audience of minors’ and expressed worry that this content is mainly anti-Russian and politically related.
Crypto exchange Binance is blocking accounts of Russian clients targeted by sanctions. Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov asked all major crypto exchanges to block the addresses of Russian users on his Twitter account, stating that: ‘It’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users.’ Nonetheless, there will not be any prohibitions on innocent users, another Binance representative told Reuters.
The Moscow Stock Exchange and Sberbank websites were knocked offline, allegedly by the Ukraine IT Army, that claimed responsibility in a Telegram post. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, responded to the Moscow Stock Exchange event on his Facebook page with: ’The mission has been accomplished! Thank you!’ He also posted that ‘Sberbank fell!’ According to TechCrunch, the Belarus official information policy site was also knocked offline. Forbes reported that the website for Russian security service FSB was targeted as well.
China’s social media giants Weibo and Douyin removed ‘inappropriate’ Ukraine content over the weekend. Chinese social media giant Weibo has taken down over 4,000 posts that were showing any ‘inappropriate’ Ukrainian content. Douyin has removed over 3,500 videos that were vulgar, unfriendly, or trivialised the war. WeChat urged users ‘to keep an objective and rational attitude toward hot-button global issues, be reasonable when participating in discussions, and together preserve a clean and bright cyber environment.’
A group of Belorussian hackers claimed to have attacked the Belarusian railways on 27 February, according to a Google translation of the message posted on their Telegram channel. The hackers, who call themselves ‘Cyber partisans’ aimed to ‘slow down the transfer of occupying forces and give the Ukrainians more time to repel the attack’. They claimed that their hack ‘paralysed’ certain railway operations in Minsk and in Orsha.
The group wrote: ‘The internal network will be disconnected until the Russian troops leave the territory of Belarus and the participation of the Belarusian military forces in the fascist aggression ceases.’
Social media networks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google are imposing measures on Russian state media content.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is reviewing requests from several countries to completely restrict Russian official media information on its platforms. ‘A number of Russian official media stations have now been completely barred from transmitting into Ukraine,’ stated Meta’s head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.
Twitter announced that any link shared by a user to a Russian state-media organisation’s website will automatically receive a label warning viewers that the tweet ‘links to a Russia state-affiliated media website’. Twitter also plans to ‘reduce the visibility and amplification of this content site-wide, no matter who it comes from,’ said Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy.
YouTube has begun blocking Russian state media within Ukraine. YouTube also stated that it will significantly limit recommendations for Russian state media. Google and Google owned Youtube will no longer allow Russian state media stations to display adverts, as reported by CNN Business.
Ukraine requested that the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – a multistakeholder body that manages global internet domains and resources – take measures in response to the Russian operation in Ukraine.
Ukraine requested that ICANN remove Russia from the internet. More specifically, in the letter from Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, to Goran Marby, President and CEO of ICANN Ukraine requested that ICANN (quote):
- Revoke, permanently or temporarily, the domains ‘.ru’, ‘.рф and ‘.su’. This list is not exhaustive and may also include other domains issued in the Russian Federation.
- Contribute to the revoking for SSL certificates for the abovementioned domains.
- Shut down DNS root servers situated in the Russian Federation, namely:
- Saint Petersburg, RU (IPv4 199.7.83.42)
- Moscow, RU (IPv4 199.7.83.42, 3 instances)
The Ukrainian representative announced a similar request to RIPE NCC, the technical organisation that manages the assignment of IP addresses in the broader European region, asking them to withdraw the right of all Russian members of RIPE to use any IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
Until now, neither ICANN nor the US Department of Commerce (since 2015) have revoked any country domain names during conflicts or wars, such as those in Afghanistan, Iraq, ex-YU, Libya, and Sudan.
A report from RBC TV claims that two of the largest US semiconductor manufacturers, Intel and AMD, will stop supplying chips to Russia after 3 March, in compliance with the recent US restrictions on technology exports to Russia. The new export restrictions will primarily target military and dual-purpose chips. This means that sales of most consumer-focused chips, such as AMD’s Ryzen and Intel’s Core CPUs, are unlikely to be affected.
