(PatrioticPost.com)- Last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blasted cryptocurrency exchanges for refusing to block all Russian citizens from their platforms in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Appearing on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow show last Monday night, an angry, haggard-looking Hillary expressed her frustration that some cryptocurrency exchanges are refusing to end transactions in Russia “for some philosophy of libertarianism or whatever.”
For Hillary Clinton, an unwillingness to target innocent Russian citizens who bear no blame for Putin’s war is “libertarianism or whatever.” She told Maddow that these cryptocurrency exchanges should be doing everything they can to isolate Russia’s economy.
Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one making demands. Last Sunday, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov also demanded cryptocurrency exchanges block, not just sanctioned Russians, but all Russian users.
Fedorov said on Twitter that it wasn’t enough to impose targeted blocks on Russian and Belarusian politicians. Instead, he demanded crypto exchanges also “sabotage” every citizen in Russia.
However, major cryptocurrency exchanges are resisting the call for a blanket freeze on all Russian IP addresses.
The exchange Kraken said in a statement last week that freezing the access of citizens “from an entire country” won’t punish the people responsible for the invasion who might have already prepared for sanctions.
In its statement, Kraken said a blanket freeze would cause “serious and unnecessary harm” to people who “played no part” in Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine.
Coinbase also announced that it would not institute a blanket ban on all Russian addresses, opting instead to implement more targeted sanctions.
In its statement, Binance argued that cryptocurrency is designed to provide “greater financial freedom,” and unilaterally banning access “would fly in the face of the reason” crypto exists.
Binance is limiting its actions to those on whom sanctions have been imposed, and said it would take additional action “should the international community widen those sanctions further.”
On Thursday Binance confirmed that cardholders from sanctioned Russian banks would not be able to use them on its platform. Likewise, sanctioned individuals have had their access to Binance restricted as well.
