Binance, Russian authorities and the use of KYC records

🚨 BINANCE TURNED KYC INTO A WEAPON FOR PUTIN’S REPRESSION MACHINE

I’ve included all the evidence and sources in the second post.

According to law enforcement files, Binance supplied Russia’s Investigative Committee with the personal dossier and transaction records used to prosecute Yuri Belenkiy over barely $700 sent to Ukrainian causes.

Belenkiy, 49, is a Russian IT specialist with a Bulgarian residence permit.

He has been imprisoned since September 2025 and is awaiting trial for alleged “terrorism financing”, thanks to Binance.

Fundraising posts by exiled Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko are stating that donations would be used to purchase medical equipment for Ukrainian soldiers.

Binance did not merely confirm a wallet address.

The documents reportedly contained Belenkiy’s transaction history, date of birth, home address, telephone number, passport number, a copy of his Russian passport and a copy of his Bulgarian residence permit.

Russian investigators received 2 replies from case@binanceholdings.ru, an address Binance itself instructed Russian and Belarusian authorities to use.

The supplied records were incorporated into the criminal case and cited as grounds for the "terrorism financing charge".

Investigators also asked Binance to identify other people who donated to the same wallet. The documents do not reveal whether Binance complied with that wider demand.

Binance collected a complete identity package under the banner of KYC, then delivered that package to the repression machinery of an terroristic, warmonger authoritarian state.

Anyone still pretending that KYC data is harmless should study this case carefully.

Your exchange account is not merely a trading account. It is a permanent dossier containing everything a dictatorship needs to identify, locate and prosecute you.

Binance publicly announced its “full exit” from Russia in September 2023.

It claimed that operating there was incompatible with its compliance strategy, that it retained no revenue share and that it had no option to repurchase the Russian business.

Yet Russian investigators were still receiving customer data from a Binance address in 2025.

This was not the first warning btw!

In 2022 Binance’s then head of Eastern Europe and Russia, Gleb Kostarev, met Rosfinmonitoring while that agency was seeking information about donors to Alexei Navalny.

Rosfinmonitoring is linked to the FSB.

Messages reviewed indicated that Kostarev agreed to share client data and said he had little choice.

Binance denied providing Navalny related user data, which must be stated clearly. But the reported relationship, the proposed disclosure mechanism and today’s Belenkiy evidence expose a pattern that cannot be dismissed with another polished press statement.

Binance now hides behind the claim that it cooperates with lawful government requests.

A demand from Putin’s investigators does not magically become lawful under European law because Moscow stamped a document.

Russia has no EU adequacy decision for personal data transfers.

➡️ Article 48 GDPR places strict limits on demands issued by authorities in third countries. If Belenkiy’s account was registered as belonging to an EU resident, a legal expert consulted says Binance may have been obliged to refuse the disclosure.

I could not establish how the account was registered, and no regulator has yet ruled that Binance violated GDPR.

Fine?

Then Binance must produce the legal basis, the competent jurisdiction, the order it relied upon, the Binance entity that exported the data and the names of those who approved it. “Lawful request” is boilerplate, not evidence.

Putin’s state apparatus is not ordinary law enforcement.

This is the machinery Binance chose to assist.

Binance has no right to demand blind trust.

European regulators must investigate every disclosure Binance made to Russian and Belarusian authorities after its supposed exit, determine the legal basis for each transfer and notify every affected user.

If European law was broken, fines alone are not enough.

Binance’s ability to process European customer data and operate under European authorisations must be reconsidered.

Putin is not Russia.

The Russians who oppose his war and dictatorship are among its victims.

My contempt is directed at the Kremlin’s killing regime and every corporation that makes its repression faster, cheaper and more efficient.

Binance sold “freedom of money” while its KYC machinery helped build a prison case against a man who supported the country Russia invaded.

That tells us exactly who they are.

........

Please retweet or quote my post instead of stealing my content.

Thank you - MASTR

SOURCES AND EVIDENCE

1. "Reuters: “Binance gave Moscow client details used to charge Russian over Ukraine donations, documents show”" (https://t.co/nS5gKWRq82)
17 August 2026. Documents reviewed by Reuters show that Binance provided Yuri Belenkiy’s transaction history, address, telephone number, passport information, Russian passport copy and Bulgarian residence permit. The records were subsequently cited in the Russian criminal case against him.

2. "Reuters: “How crypto giant Binance built ties to a Russian FSB-linked agency”" (https://t.co/OeHrBL2Wdm)

22 April 2022. Reuters reported that Binance executive Gleb Kostarev met Rosfinmonitoring while the Russian agency was seeking information about donors to Alexei Navalny. Messages reviewed by Reuters indicated that Kostarev agreed to share customer data. Binance denied providing Navalny-related user information.

3. "Binance: “Binance Fully Exits Russia With Sale to CommEX”" (https://t.co/CwTJ0o8FbF)

27 September 2023. Binance publicly claimed that it was fully leaving Russia, would retain no revenue-sharing arrangement and had no option to repurchase the Russian business.

4. "Binance Government Law Enforcement Guidelines" (https://t.co/IpqZLuioWt)

Binance states that disclosure of user information normally requires a valid court order from a competent jurisdiction or a valid police order or warrant. Binance also claims that requests are reviewed to ensure that any disclosure is lawful.

5. "European Data Protection Board: Statement 02/2022 on personal data transfers to the Russian Federation" (https://t.co/Ygt4e4ffrS)
12 July 2022. The EDPB confirms that Russia has no European Commission adequacy decision. Personal data therefore cannot be transferred to Russia as if it were an EU or EEA country. A valid mechanism under Chapter V of the GDPR is required.

6. "European Data Protection Board: Guidelines 02/2024 on Article 48 GDPR" (https://t.co/IERsYBB75k)

Final version adopted on 5 June 2025. The guidelines explain that a demand from an authority in a third country does not automatically provide a lawful basis for transferring personal data. The controller must establish both a valid legal basis and compliance with the GDPR’s international transfer requirements.

7. "United States Department of Justice: “Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution”" (https://t.co/9CcwzpzR8z)
21 November 2023. Binance pleaded guilty to violations involving anti-money-laundering requirements, operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and US sanctions. The company agreed to pay approximately $4.3 billion. Changpeng Zhao separately pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering programme.

8. "United States Department of Justice: Official clemency record for Changpeng Zhao" (https://t.co/FwibMMeh59)

The official Justice Department record confirms that Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao in October 2025. The pardon applied to Zhao personally and did not erase Binance’s separate corporate guilty plea.

9. "International Criminal Court: Arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova" (https://t.co/qBBe91BB3E)
17 March 2023. ICC judges issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over his alleged responsibility for the war crimes of unlawful deportation and unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.

10. "United Nations: “Ukraine: Torture by Russian authorities amounts to crimes against humanity”" (https://t.co/xPLGQegvU5)
29 October 2024. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that Russian authorities committed torture as a crime against humanity.

11. "Council of the European Union: Human rights abuses and political repression in Russia" (https://t.co/lnpYeQxVFH)
The EU documents systematic repression of Russian civil society, political opponents, independent journalists and human-rights defenders. It states that ultimate responsibility for Alexei Navalny’s death lies with Vladimir Putin and the Russian authorities.