Before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia warned that being cut off from Swift would be an “act of war”. Four years later, an FT investigation has exposed how a Kremlin-backed fintech company funneled more than $6.9bn through the global banking system in about nine months, some used to buy sensitive military supplies.

By using front companies to funnel payments through jurisdictions such as Kyrgyzstan, Russia’s A7 fintech created a back door into big clearing banks such as Standard Chartered, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. When western banks raised suspicions, A7 routed more payments through the United Arab Emirates. The fintech used an industrial-scale forgery operation with thousands of fake stamps and software to strip out Cyrillic lettering.

A7 also created a shadow foreign exchange swap network. Foreign-currency export earnings from Rosneft were deposited into front-company accounts abroad. The fact that Russia has found ways to skirt sanctions does not mean they are pointless; businesses being forced into expensive workarounds shows sanctions are throwing sand in the gears of Vladimir Putin’s war economy.