A new report by the Center for Information Resilience (a UK-based open-source intelligence organisation) reveals that A7, a Russian cryptocurrency payment network, is quietly building a financial foothold across Africa as a means of circumventing sanctions imposed by the US, UK, and EU following Russia's exclusion from the SWIFT interbank messaging system. The network, controlled by PSB (a Russian state bank specialising in defence financing) and sanctioned Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, has opened branches in Nigeria and Zimbabwe and sent delegations to Togo and Madagascar in January 2026, amid deepening Russian diplomatic and military ties with both countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has publicly described A7 as Russia's "first international financial platform," and the report concludes that its African expansion is directly backed by the Kremlin as part of its broader strategic and military operations on the continent.