A Russian military court has sentenced an IT specialist to 13 years in prison for financing “terrorism,” a decision heavily influenced by data provided by the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The 2nd Western District Military Court convicted 49-year-old Yuri Belenkiy on Monday, imposing a penalty of three years in prison followed by 10 years in a strict-regime penal colony. Additionally, the court ordered him to pay a 500,000-rouble ($6,300) fine.
Belenkiy, the former IT director of the company DiHouse, holds a Bulgarian residence permit and was apprehended in September of last year upon arriving in Moscow for a visit. While prosecutors had requested a 14-year sentence, the defense challenged the verdict and intends to appeal the court’s ruling. And his defence will appeal the verdict, according to TASS, he denied the charges.
The conviction stems from 15 cryptocurrency transactions identified by the court, totaling more than 120,000 roubles ($1,500), made between August 2022 and March 2024. Investigators claimed these funds were funneled to Ukraine’s armed forces and the Azov battalion—a group designated by Moscow as a “terrorist” organization. According to reports from the RIA Novosti news agency, Belenkiy utilized payment information publicized by exiled Russian journalist and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko. He is currently listed on Russia’s registry of “terrorists and extremists.”
Russian law enforcement records revealed that Binance provided investigators with Belenkiy’s transaction history. Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the rights group First Department, characterized the exchange’s response as “key evidence” in the criminal case. Although the defense questioned the origin of this data in court, noting that Binance ceased operations in Russia in 2023 following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the provided records remained central to the prosecution. The documents also showed that the records were instrumental in prosecuting him.
In response to the sentencing, Binance stated it does not enforce laws in any specific jurisdiction nor does it decide how governments utilize information provided in legal proceedings. The exchange maintained that it does not comment on individual cases or confidential law enforcement requests. Crypto regulation expert Mike Bystrov suggested in August that the exchange was under no obligation to comply with such requests and, due to Belenkiy’s Bulgarian residency, might have actually been prohibited from sharing the data under European Union privacy regulations.
The First Department recently reported that approximately 10 percent of all prosecutions brought under Russia’s treason and espionage statutes in 2025 were linked to donations made to Ukrainian entities. Authorities continue to monitor bank payments and cryptocurrency transfers, actively pursuing cases based on transactions dating back to 2022.
