Binance Maintained Russia Data Channel After Exit, Documents Show

Binance responded to a 2025 request from Russian investigators for the transaction history of Yuri Belenkiy, a Russian IT specialist, supplying identity data that was folded into an interim case outline sent to the offices of Russia’s prosecutor-general, according to law-enforcement documents reviewed by Reuters.

Russia’s Investigative Committee alleged in an Oct. 13, 2025, statement that Belenkiy sent more than $700 between January 2023 and March 2024 to Ukrainian military-linked organizations, including a group known at different times as the Azov Brigade or Azov Regiment, which Moscow designates as a terrorist organization.

EXCLUSIVE: Binance gave Moscow client details used to charge Russian over Ukraine donations, documents show https://t.co/9l6X9zloGu https://t.co/9l6X9zloGu

- Reuters (@Reuters) August 17, 2026

This is not simply a routine law-enforcement data request. It is evidence that Binance retained an operational channel with Russian authorities two years after declaring a full exit from the Russian market, and that the exchange’s compliance apparatus supplied data used to prosecute a donor to Ukraine crypto donations campaigns, Moscow treats as terrorism financing.

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