When a cache of internal files from firms tied to fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor hit the internet earlier this month, analysts saw more than business secrets exposed—they saw the architecture of a crypto-powered geopolitical machine. According to a new report from blockchain forensics firm Elliptic, the leak uncovers how Russia and its partners have been using cryptocurrency to skirt sanctions and influence elections in Moldova. At the heart of the leak is A7, a network of companies founded and all ...

Iran has long taken enormous pride in its ability to side-step the sanctions against oil exports imposed by the West. As its then-Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, stated in December 2018 at the Doha Forum: “If there is an art that we have perfected in Iran, [that] we can teach to others for a price, it is the art of evading sanctions.” It is Iraq that has been the pivotal enabler of this, from the beginning of the process to the end, as analysed in depth in my new book on the new global oil market order . ...