In 2023, Binance, then the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it was fully exiting Russia, following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.
Leaving the market meant Binance was no longer required to provide customer data to Russian authorities.
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However, a recent Reuters investigation found that in 2025 the exchange had voluntarily provided Russian authorities with his personal and transaction records. The information was later used as evidence in a case against him involving donations to the Ukrainian military.
A Donation Becomes a Terrorism Case
Yuri Belenkiy, an IT specialist with a Russian passport and a Bulgarian residence permit, was detained by Russian authorities in 2025.
Russia’s Investigative Committee accused him of sending more than $700 to the Ukrainian military and an affiliated unit known as Azov, which Russia designates as a terrorist organization. The payments allegedly took place between January 2023 and March 2024.
Russia’s criminal code broadly defines terrorist financing as covering transfers to individuals or organizations on the state’s “terrorist and extremist” list. The list includes anti-corruption, LGBT, opposition and media organizations. Ukraine and Western governments, however, regard Azov as a legitimate military formation.
Amnesty International said in 2024 that more than 90% of cases brought under Russia’s anti-terrorism laws involved no actual or planned terrorist attack, but instead concerned online comments or donations to opposition groups.
Russia has also faced international allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity over its invasion of Ukraine.
In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over the alleged unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. The same year, then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian forces and other Russian officials had committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Binance Defends the Disclosure
Belenkiy holds a Bulgarian residence permit. According to Mike Bystrov, founder of law firm Stellar Consulting, which advises on crypto regulation, Binance was under no obligation to provide his data to Russian authorities after leaving the Russian market and may have been prohibited from doing so under EU data protection law.
If Belenkiy was registered with Binance as an EU resident, he would be covered by the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This would prohibit Binance from disclosing his details without a court order and compliance with very stringent provisions.
Binance told Reuters, it was only responding to a lawful request and that Russian authorities, not Binance, were responsible for how the data was used.
Binance did not say whether providing Belenkiy’s data to Russian authorities could have violated GDPR rules. Reuters could not determine whether Belenkiy was registered with Binance as an EU customer.
As of July 1, 2026, Binance can no longer legally provide services in the EU after the transition period under the bloc’s MiCA regulatory framework expired. Since then, crypto exchanges without a CASP license have been barred from legally offering services across the European Economic Area. In late June, Binance withdrew its MiCA license application in Greece and suspended core services for EU users.
Binance Left Russia. Russian Authorities Still Got Its Data
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, triggering Western sanctions targeting Russian banks and access to global financial markets. After the invasion, Binance stopped accepting Russia-issued Visa and Mastercard cards and restricted accounts with balances above €10,000.
In September 2023, Binance announced it was fully exiting the Russian market and selling its business to CommEX. The platform looked strikingly similar to Binance, raising questions about whether the exchange had truly left Russia.
Then-CEO Changpeng Zhao even said BNB users would continue to receive a 25% discount on trading fees on CommEX.
CommEX shut down its operations in 2024. That September, Binance confirmed it was still serving a limited number of Russian users, citing the need to protect their assets.
Why This Matters
The case shows that leaving a country commercially doesn’t necessarily end a Binance’s data relationship with that country’s authorities, raising questions about how far compliance obligations extend once a company says it has exited a market.
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