Rosneft foreign earnings tied to sanctions-circumvention payment network

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Rosneft foreign earnings network

Highlights

Leaked A7 documents reveal Rosneft-linked traders supplied over $2bn in hard currency to a payment network circumventing Swift-based sanctions.
Rosneft, under Igor Sechin, is expected to release $12bn in renminbi deposits as A7 maintains a foreign-currency liquidity buffer at least 20 percent above payment needs.
Sanctions restricting dollar and euro system access hinder Russia’s repatriation of export earnings, raising payment and conversion costs for Rosneft and associated entities.

Leaked documents detail payment network

As reported by the Financial Times, a leak from inside Moscow-backed fintech group A7 shows that Rosneft-connected traders supplied more than $2bn in hard currency to the network, which is used to support international payments for Russian buyers. The documents describe A7 as a system designed to help clients in Russia make cross-border transactions despite exclusion from Swift.

A7 was founded by fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor with extensive Russian state backing, according to the report. The network serves small and medium-sized enterprises as well as large conglomerates owned by close associates of President Vladimir Putin, and leaked records outline how it accesses the foreign currencies needed to operate in the global economy.

The material also shows how the network allegedly uses forged documents to establish front companies in the names of seemingly unrelated people in other jurisdictions. Those entities are then used to make international payments within Swift on behalf of Russian purchasers, while A7 assigns dozens of staff to find Russian companies willing to sell export earnings for hard currency.

Sanctions pressure raises Rosneft’s role

Rosneft plays a central role in that structure because it provides hard currencies that A7 can spend outside Russia. The state-controlled company, Russia’s largest oil producer and exporter, only comes under full U.S. sanctions in October 2025, and is led by Igor Sechin, a close ally of Putin.

The scale of the Coral companies’ activity as oil traders for Rosneft was previously exposed by the Financial Times, which identified entities shipping Russian oil while secretly sharing a single corporate email server. A top A7 manager, Stanislav Lazarev, also indicates that Rosneft itself is expected to release "$12bn in renminbi" from its own deposits, while an A7 framework document prepared in summer 2025 says the group aims to keep a liquidity buffer of at least 20 percent more foreign currency than required for payments.

Coral Energy, now known as 2Rivers, says it ceased all trading and commercial activity after UK sanctions in December 2024 and denies involvement in the transactions described. Sanctions restricting access to the dollar- and euro-based financial system are also complicating Russia’s ability to repatriate foreign-currency earnings, increasing payment and conversion costs for Rosneft and others involved in cross-border trade.

In our earlier coverage of the EU’s decision to lift sanctions on Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, we explained how internal diplomatic pressure led to ending their asset freezes and travel bans even as the bloc renewed broader Russia-related measures. The article also highlighted backlash from Ukraine and several EU members, who warned the move could undermine the credibility and unity of the sanctions regime at a time of heightened pressure on Russia.

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