MOSCOW, October 28 (Aalimi Nation) – A Russian military court has sentenced a 49-year-old IT specialist to 13 years in custody for financing terrorism over cryptocurrency donations that investigators say supported Ukraine's armed forces, in a case that rights advocates say reflects a wider pattern of prosecutions for donations to Ukraine.
The 2nd Western District Military Court convicted Yuri Belenkiy on Monday and imposed three years in prison followed by 10 years in a strict-regime penal colony, according to a court statement. He was also fined 500,000 roubles, about $6,300. Prosecutors had sought 14 years. Belenkiy denied the charges, and his lawyers said they will appeal.
Russian prosecutors said Belenkiy, a former IT director who holds a Bulgarian residence permit, made 15 cryptocurrency transfers totalling more than 120,000 roubles, about $1,500, between August 2022 and March 2024. Another account of the case put the amount sent to the Ukrainian military at more than $700. The money was alleged to have supported Ukraine's armed forces and the Azov battalion, which Russia designates a terrorist organisation.
Court documents say he used payment details posted by Arkady Babchenko, an exiled Russian journalist and Kremlin critic who had issued an online appeal for funds. Belenkiy was detained in September 2025 when he flew to Moscow for a visit.
Investigators relied on his transaction history, which the cryptocurrency exchange Binance gave Russian authorities in response to a Russian request. Yevgeny Smirnov of the rights group First Department called the exchange's reply "key evidence" in the case.
Belenkiy's defence questioned whether the data had really come from Binance, which has not cooperated with Russia since 2022. Binance said it does not make or enforce any jurisdiction's laws and does not comment on confidential law-enforcement requests or individual cases. The company left the Russian market in 2023, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions that followed.
Mike Bystrov, a lawyer specialising in cryptocurrency regulation, said Binance had no obligation to share the data. Because Belenkiy holds Bulgarian residency, he added, the exchange may have been required under European Union data-protection law not to disclose it.
Rights advocates say dozens of Russians have been convicted in recent years over cryptocurrency donations to causes that authorities later classified as extremist or terrorist. Many, they say, used crypto believing it would keep their identities private.
First Department reported that about 10 per cent of the treason and espionage charges brought in 2025 were linked to donations to Ukrainian organisations. The group says authorities track both cryptocurrency and bank transfers and continue to open cases over donations dating back to 2022.
Belenkiy's lawyers have said they will challenge the verdict on appeal. The Russian authorities have not commented beyond the court's statement on the criticism of the evidence used in the case.
Binance has not said whether it provided the records or under what legal process, and no appeal hearing date has been announced.
