Russian Diamond Miner Jailed for ‘Sending Crypto to Ukrainian Army’

A Russian diamond mining firm employee has been jailed for sending crypto to the Ukrainian army.

According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the unnamed individual was sent to a maximum security penal colony for “providing financial assistance to a Ukrainian terrorist organization.”

Sending Crypto to Ukrainian Army: Russians Face Hefty Jail Terms

The individual is a male resident of the Mirninsky District of Yakutia (the Republic of Sakha, in Russia’s Far East).

He was arrested by the Republic of Sakha’s branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The FSB said that the man was an “employee of a diamond mining company.” The agency added that the man was born in 1988.

The man “repeatedly transferred funds to Ukrainian militants using cryptocurrency,” the FSB claimed.

Convict ‘Compromised Russian Security’ – FSB

The security service’s press spokesperson said the “offender” provided “financial assistance to a specific unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

The spokesperson said the unit used the funds to “conduct reconnaissance and subversive activities against the security of the Russian Federation.”

And the FSB claimed that the man “joined the terrorist organization” after connecting with unit members “on a social network platform.”

Here, he “received instructions from Ukrainian officers” on “how to transfer funds to a crypto wallet.”

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The FSB said it had launched a criminal case against the man under Article 275 of the Russian criminal code.

This clause refers to “high treason in the form of providing financial assistance to a foreign state, international, or foreign organization or their representatives” in “activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation.”

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Crackdown on Donations

The case comes hot on the heels of another similar arrest earlier this month. FSB officers reported the arrest of a man in Yenakiieve (referred to in Russian as Yenakiyevo), in what Russia calls the Donetsk People’s Republic on January 10.

The FSB also detained this man on suspicion of treason. The accused “repeatedly transferred funds to electronic wallets” used to finance the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the FSB said.

The FSB has previously convicted several individuals on similar “high treason” crypto-related charges.

In each case, the agency said, suspects used crypto to transfer funds. Convicted “offenders” include a Moscow-based scientist and two residents of the Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk Krai.

At the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, several high-profile donors sent coins to the Ukrainian military via official crypto donation platforms.