The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) said that three Georgia-based crypto-related service platforms included in the EU’s latest sanctions package against Russia are not under its regulation.
In a statement issued on July 24, the NBG identified the sanctioned companies as Aifory LLC, Abcex LLC, and Rapira Group LLC, stressing that “none of their areas of activity was Georgia” and that “investigative actions have been launched against them.”
The names of two companies identified by the NBG — Aifory LLC and Rapira Group LLC — match those of entities sanctioned by the United Kingdom in May over “Russia-focused exchanges seeking to evade sanctions.”
The European Union unveiled its 21st round of sanctions against Russia on July 23, conditionally including the Kulevi oil refinery on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, with a transaction ban due to take effect in six months unless the decision is reviewed. The package also targeted 14 crypto-related service platforms based in Georgia, Panama, the UAE, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus.
Georgia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Kulevi’s conditional inclusion on the sanctions list, saying there were “no factual or legal grounds” for the move and expressing hope that the bloc would review the decision before it takes effect in January 2027.
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